Alcuin and the Rise of the Christian Schools 1912
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ALCUIN
lYO^b
Edited by
NICHOLAS MUKBAY BUTLER
ALCUIN
Unjv. of California
Withdrawn
AXD
THE EISE OF THE OHEISTIAN
SCHOOLS
ANDREW FLEMING WEST
^PaonsiOB
vs Pbihcbton
Columi
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1912
COPTRIGHT, 1892, BT
CHARLES SCRIBNER^S SONS
HENRY MORSE STEPHE««
PKEFACE
It
is
the purpose of this book to present a
sketch" of Alcuin in his relations to education,
with prefatory and supplementary matter
cient
suffi-
to
indicate his
antecedents
and
also
his
connections with later times.
is
The account given
based mainly on a study of Alcuin's writings,
far as possible, to let Alcuin
and attempts, so
speak for himself, rather than to theorize about
him.
Such books about Alcuin and his pupils
found serviceable have also be^n
In submission to the present
as have been
freely consulted.
custom of historical writers, and the authority of
Shakspeare, I use the
place of Charlemagne.
name Charles the Great
in
ANDBEW
Pkincbton Collbok,
September, 1892.
F.
WEST.
S09755
CONTENTS
9Mn
Lttroduotobt
OBAP.
1
L The Sbvbn
XL
Libbsai. Abts
.
•
Alcxtik the Scholab at
Yobk
...
•
•
4
28
40
m.
rV.
Alottin the Masteb of the Falaob School
Alcuin the Abbat op Toubs
Alcuin's Educational Wbitings
Alcuin's Chaeactbb
.
V.
...
.
.64
89
117
VL
Vn. Babantts Maubus and Alcuin's Othbb Pupils
YIIL Alcuin's Lateb Influence
.
124
•
.
166
APPENDIX
Editions of Alouin
Table of Dates Books on Alcuin
....••
fil
188 193
197
INDEX
199
ALOUIN
AMD
THE EISE OP THE CHEISTIAN SCHOOLS
INTKODUCTORY
At
the mid-point between ancient and
modem
history stands the
commanding
figure of Charles
The centuries of the Middle Ages which precede him record the decadence and final
the Great.
extinction of ancient institutions, while the nearly
equal number of centuries which follow up to the
time of the Renaissance and Reformation record
the preparation for modern history.
isher of the old order of things
Thus, as
fin-
and beginner of
the new, he
is
the central secular personage in
call the
that vast stretch of time between antiquity and
the
modem world, which we
Middle Ages.
The
fortunes of education during these fifteen
centuries faU in well with the character of the
periods which
mark the
successive phases of civili-
zation in the West.
Before Charles there are two
periods, the one extending through the first four
centuries of the Christian era and characterized
by
the decline of the imperial
Roman
schools of learn1
1
'
:
:•
:
\/
ALCUIN
;
uig-and'the concurrent rise of Christianity
and tlie
other embracing nearly four centuries more, a time
of confusion, of barbarian inroads, of the dying out of schools, and of prevalent intellectual darkness.
century, a third period,
first
Then begins, under Charles at the end of the eighth marked at its outset by the
general establishment of education in the Middle Ages, an establishment lasting, however, but a
generation or two, and falling into ruin as a
new
barbarism overran Europe. This period lasted well into the eleventh century, when a fourth and last
medieval period began with a second restoration
of learning under the influence of scholasticism,
founding the universities, but itself finally decaying and coming to an end at the Renaissance, that
third and final revival of learning which
radical
was so and powerful as to become the beginning
modem age in education. These are the three revivals of learning in the West, each in turn stronger than its predecessor. But the first one under Charles and Alcuin, though the weakest, is yet of vital importance as a first stage in the evolution of modern education. Narrow and technical as was the instruction given,
of our
and brief as was the duration of the institutions founded, it still remains true that Charles was the
first
monarch
in the history of Europe, if not of the
world, to attempt an establishment of universal gratuitous primary education as well as of higher
schools.
izing sagacity, a
Moreover, as the result of Alcuin's organbody of men devoted to teaohing
INTRODUCTORY
S
as well as learning was created, giving some degree of continuity to education
down
to the founding of
the universities and so sheltering studies in various monasteries and cathedrals that some of the greater
schools thus kept alive, or offshoots from them,
afterwards became natural receptacles for the
university
life
new
of the next age.
CHAPTER
I
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
The seven liberal arts which embraced the studies
constituting the curriculum of school education in
the Middle Ages were an inheritance from classical
antiquity.
Their origin
is
to be sought in
Greek
as the
education.
Thus
Aristotle in his Politics^ defines
(eXevdepioi eirur-njfuu)
"the liberal sciences"
aspire not after
proper subjects of instruction for free
men who
what
is
immediately practical or
useful, but after intellectual
in general,
separately.
and moral excellence and mentions several of these studies
By
his time the educational doctrine of
the Greeks had become highly developed and exhibited the ideals towards
which the best Greek minds
endeavored to direct their educational practice. We are not to suppose that by the terms " liberal
and "liberal sciences " they meant either the whole of human knowledge or even the whole of liberal culture, for although the terms are not always employed in a uniform sense, yet they have a proper sense which must be held clearly in mind, if we would avoid confusion. Their proper meaning is this, the circle of disciplinary school
arts," "liberal studies "
—
1
Vlll,
1.
For a
full notice of
the liberal arts in Greek
writers see the Appendix to Davidson's Aristotle in this seriei.
4
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
studies
6
which minister
to the general education of
youth, preparatory to the higher liberal studies,
which are compendiously called philosophy. The distinction between the liberal arts and philosophy thus contains in germ the distinction between what we now mean by gymnasial and university educaIt is of course true that the liberal arts were tion. not always spoken of consistently, and that the practice of Greek writers may be compared in general with the varying modern use of the word " education," but it is no less true that to the Greeks the liberal arts primarily meant the circle of school In fact they are often identical with school studies.
education itself, so that the saying of Pythagoras, " Education must come before philosophy," ^ meant
to the Greeks that training in the liberal arts
must
precede the higher culture.
the goal of the earlier studies,
Philosophy
is
also, as
not infrequently
the
styled a liberal art, sometimes
liberal art.
only
truly
Thus Aristotle
is liberal,
is
affirms,
it
"It alone of
the sciences
its
because
exists solely for
own
sake and
not to be pursued for any
extraneous advantage." *
which came to be regarded as liberal grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, music, arithIt is not clearly metic, geometry, and astronomy. known when each of these began to be considered as a school study, or how many of them were commonly so pursued, or that they were the only
studies
arts were
1
The
Hpo
<j>iKo<TO<t)iai
waiStia, BtobaBU8| Serftl.
I, 2,
XT J.
s Metaphysig?,
6
liberal
arts.
ALCUIN
The Greeks did not formulate an num-
unalterably fixed body of studies, seven in
ber.
seven arts nor any mention of seven number of the liberal arts is to be found in the Greek writers. However, there was an order in which they were pursued, and the first three,
as the
No list of
grammar, rhetoric, and dialectics, were preparatory studies which were generally pursued in the order
The other four disciplines usually came and it is probable that only a portion of those who had completed their grammar, rhetoric, and dialectics passed on to the music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy, and that only a portion of those who so passed onward studied all the four It is clear, however, that the Greeks latter arts. consider acquaintance with the liberal came to arts as a general education, and the only general
stated.
later,
education.
By
the time of Cicero (b.c. 106-^3) the artes
Uberales
had passed over to Eome and become the groundwork of the education of the Roman liber
Cicero's references to the arts
instructive, furnishing as they
homo, or gentleman.
are abundant
and
do ample evidence of the familiarity of educated Romans of the late Republic with the studies
of the Greeks.
But
it
was not the writings of
to the
Cicero that saved the liberal arts for the Middle
Ages.
For
this
we must look
monumental
work, now
(b.c.
lost,
of his learned contemporary Varro
It is fortunate indeed that such a
116-27).
writer, in his Libri
Novem Disdplinarum, gave a
:
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
full
7
account of the arts which had passed over from
Greek into Eoman education. His list of "disciplines," as worked out by Eitschl,^ is the following grammar, dialectics, rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic,
astrology, music, medicine, architecture.
Astrolfirst
ogy of course answers to astronomy, and the
seven studies in his
1
list
are consequently the well-
Opuscula, in, 371.
Etude sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de M. T. Varron argues against the certainty of Ritschl's identification
Boissier in his of the " nine disciplines," holding that only six are clearly
out.
made
In his treatise on the Libri
Novem Disdplinarum
of Varro,
now
published in the third volume of his Opuscula, Ritschl
gathered and co-ordinated with marvelous acuteness the
scattered
many
fragment and ancient
notices connected with Varro's
work, and concludes: that he had identified each one of the " nine disciplines " with reasonable certainty and their order of presentation in Varro with a fair degree of probability. Boissier saya Ritschl afterwards doubted whether he had sustained his identification of all the nine with sufficient proof. I have been unable to find the passage where Ritschl avows such a change of conviction.
Fortunately,
it is
rate array of evidence in order to find out
disciplines" were, since there
is
not necessary to re-examine Ritschl's elabowhat Varro's " nine
case.
which covers the whole
tianus Capella's
at hand a simple piece of proof The account of the arts in MarDe Nuptiis PhilologisB et Mercuria is demon-
strably a popularized account of the studies described in Varro's
Libri
Novem
Disciplinarum.
Varro's work dealt with nine
studies, one for each of his nine books.
Martianus likewise
has but nine studies, and these are precisely the nine worked out by Ritschl as Varro's " nine disciplines." But even if only six on Ritschl's list were proved to belong to Varro's nine, yet, since these six are likewise six of the nine of Martianus, the presumption that the unidentified three of Varro
would match the remaining three of Martianus
is
very strong.
:
B
ALCUIN
arts of the Greeks, but medicine
It is very plain that
known
not in
and
archi-
tecture are added.
Varro had
mind any
it
limitation of the arts to seven,
would not be safe to assert he meant that all his "nine disciplines" were liberal arts. Perhaps he did, but more likely all he meant to represent by the " nine disciplines " was the studies generally, whether liberal or professional, which the Eomans had inherited from the Greeks. Passing on to the time of the early Empire, we
and yet
may
trace the course of the liberal arts in the writ-
65) and were well acquainted with the writings of Varro and refer to him as their authority. In Seneca's famous Epistle to I/ucilius ^ on liberal studies, five of the arts are enumerated and described in the following order grammar, and then music, geometry, arithmetic, and astronomy. This, though incomplete, yet corresponds, so far as it goes, with Varro and the Greeks. It is also true that he recognizes in his very next letter^ the distinction between rhetoric and dialectics but it would be a mistake to suppose from this that he recognized these seven as all the liberal arts,
ings of the younger
Seneca
(b.c. 8-a.d.
Quintilian (a.d. 35-96), both of
whom
;
or that he consciously recognized any unalterably
fixed
list.
medicine as a liberal
I JSpist.
Indeed he speaks in another letter ' of art, and may have followed
Morale Lib.
Xm, Ep.
Ill, 3-15.
Ed. Haase, Leipsic,
1886.
«
Epist.
Moral, Lib. XIV, Ep.
I,
17.
» fpiat. Moral., Lib.
XV, Ep. lU, a
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
Varro in doing
Quintilian, in
so.
Shortly after Seneca comes
arts are
whose writings the
more
strictly co-ordinated as a
complete course of school
instruction.
He
speaks in his Institutes of Oratory
of the departments of study which need to be pursued " in order that that circle of instruction, which
the Greeks call cyKwAios
iraihua,
may be completed." ^
He
also mentions as such studies
music, and geometry,
arithmetic,
grammar, rhetoric, making the geometry include geometry, and astronomy. These six
might perhaps be regarded as really seven if we suppose that Quintilian combined dialectics with rhetoric, as was sometimes done but in any event it is clear that he, like Seneca, had not formulated an exclusive list of seven or any other number. Yet it is also clear that as with the Greeks, so with the Eomans, grammar remained the inevitable first study, with rhetoric and probably dialectics immediately following, and that the foiarfold division into arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy
;
held
its
own
as a natural distribution for the suc-
ceeding studies.
The Roman
civilization,
and with
it
the educa-
tion established in the imperial schools, passed on
to its decline, partly
partly
from interior moral decay, by external barbarian assault, and even more irrevocably through the supplanting power of the new ideals introduced by Christianity. We are chiefly concerned with the last of these, and more particularly here with the twofold attitude
^ Institutio
Oratoria,
I,
cap. 10,
1.
Ritschl, Opuscula, III, 354.
10
ALCUIN
assumed by the early Church of the West towards the arts. The first position was one of antagonism. Thus Tertullian proscribes pagan learning as both apparently a most harsh ineffectual and immoral, judgment. But if we keep in and indefensible of great a number of the view the utter vileness
—
so-called professors or teachers of the arts in the
time of the Empire, a fact easily proven from
the writings of Seneca and Quintilian, and the gross
immoralities of pagan religion which were a natural development of so
much
it
of the mythology
will be seen that
that tainted their literature,
an
antagonistic attitude to certain phases of pagan cul-
ture
was inevitable from the
first
on the part of the
patriarchs of phi-
Church, and this might easily pass into a proscription of the liberal arts.
"The
losophy," says Tertullian, "are the patriarchs of
heresy."
He
also decries
philosophy and rhetoric."
them as "hucksters of Lactantius says, " They
do not edify but destroy our lives," and even Augustine calls them " croaking frogs." " Refrain
from all the writings of the heathen," is the language of the Apostolical Constitutions,^ " for what hast thou to do with strange discourses, laws, or
which in truth turn aside from the are weak in understanding ? For if thou wilt explore history, thou hast the Books of the Kings or seekest thou for words of wisdom and eloquence, thou hast the Prophets, Job, and
false prophets,
faith those
who
;
1
Quoted and translated in Mulllnger's Schools of Charles tJU
<?r««(,p.8.
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
the
11
Book
of Proverbs, wherein thou shalt find a
more perfect knowledge of all eloquence and wisdom, for they are the voice of the Lord, the only wise God. Or dost thou long for tuneful strains, thou hast the Psalms or to explore the origin of
;
things, thou hast the
Book
of Genesis
;
or for cus-
toms and observances, thou hast the excellent law of the Lord God. Wherefore abstain scrupulously from all strange and devilish books." Such is an
authoritative utterance of the early church, so that
we need feel no
great doctors.
surprise at finding
it
echoed by her
Was
it
not Augustine
who made
is
famous the saying, Indocti cesium rapiunt, "It
the ignorant
who
take the kingdom of
Heaven";
and did not Gregoiy the Great assert that he would blush to have Holy Scripture subjected to the rules
grammar ? But though antagonism was the first position of the Church, and a necessary position in her first encounter with paganism, there were influential voices raised on the other side, and this harsh opinion was gradually modified, so that by the fourth and fifth centuries it was superseded by a better view. The liberal arts and their sequel, the ancient philosophy, came to be regarded with qualified approval, and despite his other utterances which embody the earlier attitude of the Church, it was again the great Augustine (a.d.
of
354-430), the literary as well as the theological
leader of
Western Christendom
influential in
in his time,
who
was most
committing the Ghuich to
12
ALCUIN
a recognition of the arts and philosophy as suitable This was accomplished nay, even on the ground that they were useful necessary, for the understanding of the Scriptures.
studies for the Christian.
—
His views are best
Christian Instruction,
set forth in his treatise.
On
which was completed in his seventy-second year, and may therefore be assumed to represent his final judgment. Nothing freer or more comprehensive has been said even under the
light of later Christianity than the
maxim he has
there recorded, Quisquis bonus verusque Christianus
est,
Domini
veritatem, "
sui esse intelligat, ubicumque invenerit Let every good and true Christian know
that truth is the truth of his Lord and Master, where-
soever it be found." ^ Such words foreshadow the whole revolution in the ideals of education introduced by Christianity. In the same treatise he draws a beautiful though fanciful parallel between Israel and the Egyptians at the time of the Exodus, and the
similar situation of the Christians of his time, emerg-
ing from the spiritual bondage of paganism. " As the land of Egypt," he writes, " contained idols for
Israel to abominate
and grievous burdens for them
to
flee,
yet there were also vessels and ornaments
of gold and silver, which Israel going out of
Egypt
took with them to devote to a better use, not of their own right, but at the command of God, the
Egyptians themselves unwittingly furnishing what
they themselves had been putting to an evil use. So all the teachings of the heathen contain vain
^
De Doctrina
Christiana, U, cap. 17.
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
Ih
and idolatrous inventions and grievous burdens ot unnecessary labor, and every one of us as we go out from heathendom, under Christ our Moses, ought to abominate the one and flee the other.
Yet there are likewise the
liberal disciplines, well
suited to the service of the truth,
and containing,
This
moreover, very useful moral precepts and truths
regarding the worship of the one true God.
is
which they have not created themselves, but have extracted from certain
their
gold
and
silver,
ores, as
it
were, of
precious metal, wheresoever
they found them scattered by the hand of divine providence. So, also, they have raiment, the hu-
man
and customs wherewith they are These we need for our life here below, and should appropriate and turn them to a better use. For what else than this have many of the good and faithful done ? Behold how that most persuasive doctor and blessed martyr Cyprian came out of Egypt, laden with what great spoil of their How much did not gold and silver and raiment Lactantius take and Victorinus, and Optatus, and Hilary, not to speak of those now living or of the innumerable Greek fathers. Moses also, that most faithful servant of God, did so long ago, for is it not written that he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians ? " ^ Spoil the Egyptians Take their gold and silver and raiment. Take all the truths of the pagan schools and use them in the service of Christ. Henceforth the Christian if
institutions
clothed.
!
!
!
^
De Doctrina
Chr-utiana,
II,
cap. 40.
:
14
ALCUm
is
not shut up to rejecting or taking secular culture
as a whole, but he
course,
to select the best.
A middle
is
which
is
not a mere compromise,
thus
opened up, avoiding the extreme of TertuUian in proscribing secular learning and the other later extreme of the Benaissance in taking all, whether
base or excellent.
Let us not be misled into supposing that Augustine thought the arts or philosophy were to be
studied purely for their
he reasons that
Israel
if
was
great,
Not so, for Egypt taken by yet the treasures of Solomon in
sake.
own
—
the spoil of
Jerusalem were far greater. Accordingly he writes "As was the amount of gold and silver and raiment taken by Israel out of Egypt when compared with the treasures they amassed afterwards in Jerusalem, treasures at their greatest when Solomon was king, such is all knowledge, useful though it be, which is gathered from the books of the heathen, when compared with the knowledge of the divine Scriptures. For whatever man has spoken elsewhere, if
it
be harmful,
it is
here condemned
;
if it
be use-
ful, it is herein contained."^ The Scriptures are the final test of the " harmful " and the " useful."
They are even more, of human learning is
is this
for
they embrace whatever
Inconsistent indeed
useful.
position with Augustine's other statements
to study the
and with his injunction
in the liberal arts, if
it
good things
be true that these things
It sounds like
II,
are already in the Scriptures.
1 J)e
a
Doctrina Christiana,
cap.
41
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
late
16
echo of Tertullian.
But
let it
be remembered
tbat Augustine represents in himself the history
of the differing successive attitudes of the
towards pagan
of his writings
culture,
is
Church and that the general tenor
decidedly in favor of studying
the arts and philosophy, though not solely or
principally for themselves, but as ancillary to the
supreme spiritual teachings of the Bible. Augustine's connections with the liberal arts are even more definite. He had himseK been a teacher of rhetoric before his conversion, and a writer on
seven of
the arts.
The
record of this, in his
Retractations, which was written shortly before 427, is of distinct importance, particularly from the fact that he was well acquainted with the writ-
ings of Varro, to
greatest authority.
whom he frequently refers as his He states that while at 'Milan
title
awaiting baptism, he endeavored to write Discvpli-
narum lAhri (almost the
of Varro's old work),
and that he finished only a book on grammar and part of another on music .^ After his baptism he returned to Africa and continued what he had begun at Milan. Besides the two treatises mentioned, he says that he wrote de oliis vero quinque discipUnis similiter inchoatis, that is, finished books he had begun upon five other disciplines, in addition to grammar and music. It has been held by many with Kitschl' that this means "on the other five disciplines," and that Augustine consequently recognizes
1 Retractationes, I, cap. 6.
*
OpwciUa Fhilologica,
III, 364.
1«
ALCUIN
arts.
seven as the total number of the liberal
it is
But
means
such cannot be proved from this passage, because
possible that de aliis quinque disciplinis
five other disciplines."
"on
It is clear, however,
that Augustine enumerates seven arts which he
recognizes as liberal, and that he nowhere else recognizes more.^
His
list is as
follows
:
Gram-
mar and
the
tics,
music, as above stated, and besides them following " five other disciplines " dialec:
rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic,
phy.
and philosoElsewhere^ he speaks of pursuing memo-
ratum discipUnarum ordinem, a previously cited "order of the disciplines," and in still another passage' of having studied in his youth omnes libros artium quas liberales vacant, " all the books Taking all his of the so-called liberal arts."
stateihents in one view it Augustine listed only seven
becomes
plain that
liberal arts,
and that
he refers to a fixed order among them and to his His list is remarkacquaintance with each one.
able in one respect, for astronomy in
its
is
lacking and
place
we find philosophy, a substitution apparto recognize less than seven in
It is
ently due to Augustine's deep abhorrence of astrol1
Nor does he seem
eral account of the arts.
true that in another
any genwork {De
Ordine, lib. II), when giving a general description though not making out a formal list, he names only six, grammar, rhet-
—
oric, dialectics, music,
geometry, astronomy.
seven, for he treats of arithmetic, or
geometry.
Thus
in this
But he describes "numbers," under the account he deals with the same disci-
plines as in the Retractations, except that his favorite philoso-
phy
is
replaced by the traditional astronomy.
II, 16.
*J)e Ordine,
« Con/essiones, IV, cap. 16, 30.
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
M
ogy as an impious art and his love for philosophy, which he puts in its place as the last and presumably the highest study.
But why should Augustine have only seven arts Certainly not by accident. He exercised some choice in the matter, as appears from
in his list ?
his substituting philosophy for astronomy.
Varro
had written on nine disciplines, and though Augustine refers to him repeatedly as an authority, he
does not adhere to Varro's number.
obscure.
It
The point
is
may
be Augustine
knew
of the seven
arts in Martianus Capella's book, or that,
the arts were settling
his time,^
though body of seven by the limitation to seven was not definitely
down
to a
before his mind.
The important
is
point, however, in
connection with Augustine,
not the number of
the
arts.
His position and influence may now be summarized with clearness. His settled view, attained after long meditation, was one of favorable regard toward the arts, principally because they ministered to
the better understanding of distinctively Christian
truths.
Expressions of a different tenor are indeed
to be found here
and there in
his writings.
At one
time he seems to go back to the idea that secular studies are useless, though not to be proscribed, and at another to advance fearlessly to the position
that all truth everywhere
is to
be reverenced, in or
out of the Scriptures, thus mirroring in his
1 Possibly throagh an Alexaudriau influence, which UBable to trace at present.
own
are
we
IS
ALcum
experience the early rigid attitude of the Church
at the one extreme as well as the enlightened atti-
tude of the distant future Eeformation at the other,
His was so commanding that from his time onward the Church was decisively committed to the toleration and even the encouragement of secuinfluence
lar studies.
but finally resting midway between them.
And yet Augustine does not stand alone in accredMiddle Ages. Another influence, potent, though at first reluctantly acknowledged by Christian writers, came from Martianus Capella of Carthage, who was either contemporary with Augustine or else somewhat earlier.* He wrote an allegorical treatise entitled The Marriage of Philology and Mercury, in a turgid, fantastical manner which had been fastened on the Latinity of North Africa by Apuleius. The book
iting the liberal arts to the Christian
is
consequently not only tiresome in
is
its
rhetorical
luxuriance, but
often so involved and obscure
to
that
we
are puzzled
determine whether the
author's peculiarities in any given instance are due
to his affected style or to
an intention to be enigis
matic.
The
object of the treatise, however,
quite
1 The date of Martianus Capella was commonly suppose to be either in the 5th or 6th century of our era, until the appearance of Eyssenhardt's edition in 1866. He proves that Martianus
must have been written before the destruction of Carthage by the Vandals in 439, but is unable to show how long before. Parker argues that the book was written before Byzantium was called Constantinople, that is, before the year 330
Capella's book
(English HUtorictU Review, July, 1890, pp. 4M-416).
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
clear.
19
liberal
way the Martianus himself appears to have been a self-taught man. He set
It
was to describe
in a fanciful
disciplines of Varro.
before
him the writing
of his book as a task for
winter nights, and adopted the medley of prose and
verse which had gained a place in literature through
the influence of Varro's medleys, constructed in this
fashion and
known
as Saturce, as a proper literary
receptacle for his rambling but copious account of
the liberal arts.
So he tells us figuratively
at the
end
of his book that he has exhibited his literary goddess Satura, "prattling
away
as she heaps things
learned and unlearned together, mingling things
sacred with things profane, huddling together both
the muses and the gods, and
polished tale."
liberal
ircuScui)
^
representing the
cyclic disciplines babbling unlearnedly in
an un-
The " cyclic
encycUus
disciplines " are the
disciplina
(ey/cwXtos
arts,
the
of classical
antiquity,
interlocutors in his allegory.
and they become The subject of his
marriage
symbol-
treatise, consisting of nine books, is the
of Mercury with Philology, the daughter of Wis-
dom.
Mercury, as the inventor of
letters,
izes the arts of
Greece of heaven-born origin, while
his bride, Philology, is an earth-born
maiden repre-
senting school learning.
After the consent of Jupi-
ter has been given to this union of
1
god and mortal,
Loquax docta
indoctis adgerans
Fandis tacenda farcinat, immiscnit
Masas deosque,
disciplinas cyclicas
Oariire agresti cruda finxit plasmate.
— Book ix (closing lines).
20
ALCXTIN
the nuptials are celebrated in the shining Milky
Way with
The
first
the liberal arts as the seven bridesmaids.
two books are occupied with the wedding
treat,
and the other seven
liberal
each in turn, of the seven
arts
in
the persons of the bridesmaids.
occupies the third book, dialectics
fifth,
Grammar thus
the fourth, rhetoric the
geometry the
sixth,
arithmetic the seventh, astronomy the eighth and
music the ninth. The list is significant, for it tallies with that of Augustine, except so far as concerns and astronomy, a discrepancy of no importance, it differs from Varro in expressly omitting medicine and architecture, which had completed his "nine disciplines." As there is no evidence of any connection between the writings of Augustine and Martianus
—
—
Capella, and good reason to believe that Augustine would not regard his purely pagan account with
respect, especially as it contained contemptuous,
though concealed flings at Christian doctrines, their agreement in keeping to seven liberal arts is remarkable and goes far toward proving that the arts were commonly supposed to be seven by or before the time of Augustine. Oddly enough, Martianus Capella never thinks of attaching any importance to the fact that they were seven, though he enlarges on the mystical character of the Heptas
in other connections. Yet his none the less intentional, for medicine and architecture, which were very probably, if not certainly, two of Varro's nine, are expressly rejected
or septenary
number ^
limitation
is
ipp. 262 and 265, Eyssenhardt's edition, 1866.
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
as bridesmaids.
21
After six of the bridesmaids have
appeared before Jupiter and discoursed at length, the Father of the Gods turns and asks Apollo how
many more
waiting.
of these excellent maidens are yet in
tells
Apollo
architecture are at
him that both medicine and hand, but adds, "Inasmuch as
they are concerned with perishable earthly things, and have nothing in common with what is ethereal
and
divine, it will be quite
fitting that
they be
re-
rejected with disdain."
Accordingly they are
fused entrance, and music, the seventh bridesmaid and "only remaining" heaven-bom art, is given
audience.^
The meaning
eral studies.
is
plain.
Medicine and architecelevate the
ture are excluded because they are not purely lib-
They do not
mind
to the
contemplation of abstract truth, but are of the
earth, earthy,
and consequently
unfit for the
com-
pany of the
Martianus
celestials.
They
are of the useful
and
professional arts.
is
This limitation of the arts by
therefore based on their character as
liberal studies,
not due to reverence for that number.
1
though the limitation to seven was His arts
.
" Superum pater
.
. .
.
.
superesset
exquirit.
qui probandarum (=artium) nomerus Cui Delius Medicinam suggerit Archi'
tectonicamque in praeparatis adsistere, sed quoaiam his mortalium rerum cura terrenorumque soUertia est nee cum aethere quicquam habfent superisque confine, non incongrue, si fastidio respnuntur'" (p. 332). After further talk Jupiter answers,
"Nunc
igitur
(= Musicam)
prsecellentissimam feminarum Harmonicam qux Mercurialium tola superest audiamus " (p. 336,
Eyssenhardt's edition).
8S
ALCUIN
in the eyes of Christian writers were unbaptized
pagans, but the fact that they were seven did
much towards
securing
them a Christian
standing.
After Martianus Capella, whose book was very
slow in getting in with the company of Christian writings and consequently of exercising its strong
influence
which came much
later,
the next
name
is
of importance in the fortunes of the liberal arts
that of the philosopher Boethius (481-525).
is
His
the last
name
in the history of ancient philos-
ophy, and apart from a few expressions and terms
which bear a Christian aspect, he must be accounted a pagan in his culture. His importance for the history of education is due to his translations of Greek works which became text-books to a large degree for the whole of the Middle Ages. He composed versions or adaptations of treatises on arithmetic,
geometry, the logic of Aristotle, besides other writings of Aristotle and of Porphyry,
and several
commentaries of his own, principally on Aristotle and Cicero. This slender equipment was a chief
part of what was saved to the early schools of the
Middle Ages from Greek antiquity. Boethius has no general account of the seven arts, nor is there to be found in his writings any indication that he thought the number noteworthy in this connection. His significance lies in the fact that his writings served as text-books and as a source for other writers on the arts to draw from. It is perhaps worth noticing, however, that he is apleft
parently the
first to
employ the term qitadrivium
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
as the
S8
name
for the
combined study of music,
It is also
arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy.
word trivium, as a formal designation for grammar, rhetoric, and dialectics, goes back to his time. At any rate, the substantial distinction between the trivium as an elementary course of study in language and discourse as opposed to
possible that the
the quadrivium, the later study of the sciences,
emerges in his writings. A contemporary and friend of Boethius, and like him, of noble family, was the Eoman senator
Cassiodorus (468-569),
who
retired in his old age
from the turmoil of public life and the increasing barbarism of Italy under its Gothic rulers, taking shelter in his monastery in Calabria, where he spent his remaining years in the service of Christian learning. He attempted to stimulate
the monks to unflagging study, particularly to the
copying of manuscripts, and was in this
ential in extending the practice into
way
influ-
most of the
monastic orders of Latin Christendom. Besides rendering this important service to learning, he wrote
assiduously both on Christian and secular subjects.
One
of his books
is
entitled
On
the
Arts and Disci-
plines of Liberal Letters.
He had
previously writ-
ten his book
On
the
Institutes
of Sacred Letters
thinks
it fit,
in thirty-three chapters, one chapter for each year
of our Lord's earthly
fore, that his
life.
He
there-
book on the
liberal arts should also
be divided into parts according to a suitable number.
Seven
is,
of course, the one
number that
will
24
ALCUIN
Accordingly he opens his preface by sayis now time that we should hasten through
match.
ing
:
" It
the text of the book
we have
in
hand imder
Let
seven other
Scriptures
titles suitable to secular letters.
us understand plainly that whensoever the Holy
mean
to set forth anything as entire
and complete, as they frequently do, it is comprehended under that number, even as David says, Seven times in the day have I spoken praises unto thee,' and Solomon, 'Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars.' " ^ Here is a new reinforcement coming from Scripture itself. The old plea of Augustine on their behalf was that the arts helped towards understanding the Scriptures, and although the fact that they were seven might naturally give them favor in his eyes, yet he had not thought to build an argument thereon. Cassiodorus uses this consideration as though it were a new one in connection with the arts, and however slight it may seem to us, it became forcible enough to the mys'
tical-number worshippers of medieval times.
arts are seven
The
scriptural
But this is the and only seven. number for what is complete and per-
1 " Nunc tempus est ut aliis septem titulis saecnlarinm litterarum praesentis libri (textum) percurrere debeamus. Sciendum est plane quoniam frequenter quidquid continuum atque perpetuum Scriptura Sanctavult intelligi, sub isto numero comprehendit sicut dicit David Septies in die laudem dixi
. . . ;
:
'
tibi
'
.
.
ezcidit
1150).
Et Salomon Sapientia sedificavit sibi domum, colunmas septem' " (Migne, Patrologia Latina, LXX,
.
:
'
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
feet,
25
and therefore the Christian must hold them
list
in due honor.
is that found in Martianus he is under evident obligations. But they are unacknowledged, and Martianus himself is only referred to in a contemptuous manner as a Satura Doctor, or undignified medleywriter. This much, however, may be assumed,
His
of the arts
Capella, to
whom
that Cassiodorus adhered to the
list
of the arts
he found in Martianus Capella, much as he must have abominated his undisguised paganism and pretentiously swollen style, and then proceeded to write
a compend suitable for Christian use.
is
His account
short and in no
way
is
original or forcible.
The
chapter on grammar
an abridgment of Donatus, the greatest of the Roman grammarians. His rhetoric is based to a considerable extent on Cicero. His dialectics come in part from Varro but principally from Boethius. It is really Boethius made
easy for beginners.
oric
and
dialectics,
he
These three, grammar, rhetcalls arts, and the next four
are called disciplines.
Of
his four disciplines, his
arithmetic comes from Nicomachus and Boethius,
music from various sources, his geometry mainly from Varro and from the little of Euclid that was translated by Boethius, and lastly his astronomy from Boethius. Rudimentary and brief as his book is, it is not to be despised, for it was not so much the content as the spirit of his labor which had
his
value.
It helped to fasten the tradition of learnlife
ing on the meuastery and school
of centuries.
20
ALCTHN
Thus
far the liberal arts have been saved either
in treatises or compends, but the next writer
who
gives
in
them shelter accords them a small comer what was the first encyclopedia. This work is
Spain (died 636)
.
the so-called Etymologies of Isidore, bishop of Seville in
By
his time barbarism
had wellnigh extinguished learning, and it is to his labors that we owe the vast collection of excerpts, gathered from patristic and classical writers, which served as a thesaurus of all knowledge for cenThough his huge book is of course utterly turies. without original value and so full of absurdities and puerilities that it may be considered as an index of the retrogression in learning that had set in, it is still true that Isidore was the most
widely informed
of Saragossa,
man
of his time.
Braulio, bishop
by whose persistent entreaty he was induced to write the Etymologies, was next to him the most learned man in Spain, and testifies that Isidore was " distinguished in his knowledge of the trivium^ and perfectly acquainted with the qxiadrivium," and that God had raised him up in " these last times " to save the world from utter " rusticity." The liberal arts are briefly described in his book and their proper number is expressly recognized
as
seven: " DisciplinoB liberalium artium septem sunt" ^ His account of them is copied bodily from Cassiodorus. A century and a half later Alcuin
admiringly regarded him as the lumen Hispanias
1
The earliest instance
three liberal arts.
I
first
can find of trivium as a name for the * EtymologuB, 1, 2.
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
.*/
and as the one cui nihil Hispania darius hdbuit,^ expressions which reveal only too plainly how great must have been the darkness in which an Isidore could seem brilliant. Such is the genealogy of the patriarchs of the liberal arts, and of these Boethius, Cassiodorus and Isidore became the acknowledged authorities in the schools, while Martianus Capella, though at first unacknowledged, was also influential. The learning they handed over did not attain to the
dignity of a systematic exhibit of the learning
of the ancients, but contained at best a general
outline of its
school studies imperfectly filled in
modified.
It cannot
and often
faultily
be too
plainly insisted on that
what they gave to the Middle Ages was enclosed in a very few books and
that this scanty store constituted practically the
whole substance of instruction up to the eighth
century, not being completely displaced until the
Renaissance.
Isidore stands last in the
list,
clos-
ing the development of Christian school learning
in the midst of a barbarism that
was extinguishing
his time
not only learning but civilized society in Western
Europe.
The darkness that followed
was profound and almost universal. Eome itself had become barbarian, and only in distant Britain and Ireland was the lamp of learning kept lighted, not to shine again on the Continent until brought thither by the hand of
for over a century
Alcuin.
1
Alcuin, Ep. 115, p. 477, Ja£F^.
CHAPTER
II
ALCUIN THE 8CH0LAB AT YORK
A.D. 736-782
The
following Isidore
darkness on the Continent during the age up to the time of Charles the
lectual
Great coincides in time with the brightest inteleminence of the Anglo-Saxon Church,
where learning found a shelter until it returned Christianity had entered to Europe with Alcuin. Britain by many doors and at many times, carrying with it the precious treasure of the liberal arts. From the great monastery at Lerins, ofE the Mediterranean shore of Gaul, St. Patrick had brought religion to Ireland, and other monks
following
him introduced not only the sacred
but also the secular studies then flourishing in Both in the pagan schools the Gallic schools.
of the dying
cessors
lingered,
in
Empire and in their Christian sucGaul the study of Greek and there was a directer and wider acsouthern
quaintance with classical antiquity than elsewhere.
and Pronto were known and studied, and the dangerous Martianus Capella was the favorite handbook of the The quick and speculative Irish mind liberal arts.
Aristotle, Cicero, Virgil, Plautus, Varro,
28
ALCUIN THE SCHOLAR AT YOUK
was
easily touched
29
ings
and responded to such teachinto contact with them, and thus from the start developed in isolation from the stiffening and contracting influences which came to dominate the Latin Church on the Continent gener-
when brought
ally.
This learning of Ireland passed in turn in the
seventh century into Northumbria, the Anglo-Saxon
kingdom of North Britain. To the south, Gregory the Great had sent the zealous monk Augustine in 696 to evangelize Britain from Canterbury as a centre. To the same place Theodore of Tarsus came in 669, soon to become its first archbishop. This strict and capable ecclesiastic succeeded in impressing on the Anglo-Saxon Church the Eoman discipline and organization to a marked degree. But
though a determined promoter of papal influence, he was yet a Greek by birth, and under his auspices
the study of Greek was introduced in Canterbury.
To the north the great twin monastery of Wearmouth and Yarrow had been founded and enriched with books from Lerins and other continental monasteries,
and even from
its
Kome
itself.
Benedict
its
Biscop (628-690),
abbat.
noble founder, also became
His greatest pupil was Bede (673-735), who at the age of seven began his education under Benedict and continued it under his successor, Coelfrith. He there "enjoyed advantages which could not perhaps have been found anywhere else
in
Europe
at the time
;
perfect access to all the
existing sources of learning in the West,
else could
he acquire at once the
Irish, the
Nowhere Eoman,
80
ALCUIN
the Gallican^ and the Canterbury learning ; the accu-
mulated stores of books which Benedict had bought at Rome and at Vienne or the disciplinary instruc;
drawn from the monasteries on the Continent, well as from the Irish missionaries." * All that as he was capable of receiving from these several schools seems to have been grafted upon his simple and primitive Anglo-Saxon nature and made his own. His pursuit of learning was ardent and unreWhatever of his time was not taken up mitting. in the round of monastic duties he devoted to his
tion
he writes, " I spent in that same monastery, giving my whole attention to meditating on the Scriptures, and in the intervals bestudies.
life,"
" All
my
tween the observances of regular discipline and the daily duty of singing in the church, I made it my
delight either to be learning or teaching or writing."
But Bede, though
mind, he
is
receptive,
was conservative. Not-
withstanding his allegorizing and inquiring habit of
yet above
all
marked by that loyalty and
ancient simplicity of disposition which so strongly
characterized the true Anglo-Saxon.
He could therewas
fore allegorize without being wildly erratic, as
Martianus Capella, so that he was in no danger from that source. More than this, his circumspect regard
for the church tradition put such a
pagan writer
Consehis
quite out of the reach of his acceptance.
quently Bede never makes use of him, but follows
after the feebler
and safer
Isidore,
who was
^Dictionary of Christian Biography, article on Bede by Bishop Stubbg.
ALCUIN THE SCHOLAR AT YORK
31
favorite authority for all matters connected with
the liberal
to a scribe
arts.
Even on his death-bed he dictated some portions of Isidore's writings, giv-
ing as his reasons therefor, "I will not have my pupils read a falsehood or labor without profit after
my
death." One of his closest friends was Egbert, who became archbishop of York in 732 and founded
there the cathedral school, enriching
library.
it
with a great
His rule of thirty-four years was of invaluiElbert (Ethel
able service to the cause of learning.
bert), his scholasticus or
master of the school, carried
its
out his generous policy and afterwards succeeded
him
as archbishop.
In this school they trained
greatest pupil, Alcuin.
family.
Alcuin was descended from a noble Northumbrian The date and place of his birth are not
definitely known, but it is very probable that he was born about 735 in or near York, where his early While yet a little child he entered life was passed. the cathedral school founded by Egbert, continuing there as a scholar and afterward as master In company until his departure for Frankland. with the other young nobles who composed the school he was first taught to read, write and mem-
orize the Latin Psalms, then indoctrinated in the
rudiments of grammar and other liberal
arts,
and
afterwards in the knowledge of Holy Scripture.
He
the
has
left
on record in his poem On
the Saints of
Church at York a characteristic description of the studies pursued under .Albert. His verses read;
;
;
82
ALCUm
There the Euboric ^ scholars felt the rule Of Master .Mbert, teaching in the schooL Their thirsty hearts to gladden well he knew With doctrine's stream and learning's heavenly dew«
To some he made
the
grammar understood
And poured on
The
While those
others rhetoric's copious flood.
rules of jurisprudence these rehearse,
recite in high Aonian verse, Or play Castalia's flutes in cadence sweet And mount Parnassus on swift lyric feet.
Anon the master turns their gaze on high To view the travailing sun and moon, the sky
In order turning with
its
planets seven,
And starry
The storms
hosts that keep the law of heaven.
at sea, the earthquake's shock, the race
Of men and beasts and flying fowl they trace Or to the laws of numbers bend their mind And search till Easter's annual day they find.
Then,
last
and
of
The depths
best, he opened up to view Holy Scripture, Old and New.
Was any And
Of
Then him
youth in studies well approved. the master cherished, taught and loved thus the double knowledge he conferred
liberal studies
and the Holy Word.*
Under the
fanciful coloring of this sketch, several
of the liberal arts
may
be discerned.
Grammar
and rhetoric are there at the start. We may also pick out two others, arithmetic, or "numbers," and astronomy. "Jurisprudence" means canon law.
1
*De
Alcnin often calls York the civitas Euhorica. Sanctis Eboracensia EcclesisB, vv. 1430-14B3.
ALCUIN THE SCHOLAR AT YORK
The
" storms "
33
and " earthquakes," as well as the men and beasts, belong to Isidore's " geographical " information. This was commonly included under geometry, as pertaining to the description of the earth. " Aonian verse," " Castalia's flutes" and "Parnassus" are poetry in the sense of metrical exercises, and perhaps included some imitation of classical diction. Possibly music is also faintly hinted at in " Castalia's flutes." But though two of the liberal arts, music and geometry, are not clearly specified and dialectics is not named,
natural history of
we may be sure that
Alcuin's picture
is
not intended
drawn characterization of the studies at York, and it is fair to assume that the others were at least known, if not cultivated.
to present a list but a freely
A
lively gratitude
for
the learning he there
received, but above all for the faithfid instruction
in Christian virtue
sonally instilled, remained with
life.
which Egbert and Albert perhim to the end of Long after he had gone to Frankland he
" It
is
wrote affectionately to the brethren of the school
at
York
:
ye who cherished the
frail
years
of
my
infancy with a mother's affection, endured
with pious patience the wanton time of my boyhood, conducted me by the discipline of fatherly correction Unto the perfect age of manhood and strengthened me with the instruction of sacred
learning.
What
can I say more, except to implore
that the goodness of the
King
eternal
may reward
your good deeds
to
me, his servant, with the glory
of eternal blessedness ? "
Alcuin soon became ths
34
ALCTJIN
most eminent pnpil of the school and an assistant
master to Albert.
On
the death of Egbert in 766,
when Albert succeeded to the archbishopric, Alcuin in turn appears to have succeeded him as master of the school. At any rate, he was then ordained a
deacon, or "levite," and held the office of scholasticus for
some time
thereafter.
Thus he might
he was given
naturally expect to succeed eventually to the archbishopric.
On
JElbert's death in 780
charge of the cathedral library, then the most
famous in Britain and one of the most famous in Christendom. He has left on record in one of his poems a statement of the principal books which a sort of metrical catalogue. were there stored, English as foUows: It runs in
—
There shalt thou find the volumes that contain All of the ancient fathers who remain There all the Latin writers make their home
;
With those that glorious Greece transferred to Rome, The Hebrews draw from their celestial stream,
—
And Africa is bright with
learning's beam.
Here shines what Jerome, Ambrose, Hilary thought, Or Athanasius and Augustine wrought.
Orosius, Leo, Gregory the Great, Near Basil and Fulgentius coruscate. Grave Cassiodorus and John Chrysostom Next Master Bede and learned Aldhelm come, While Victorinus and Boethius stand With Pliny and Pompeius close at hand.
Wise
Aristotle looks
on TuUy
near.
Sedolius and Juvencus next appear.
ALCUIN THE SCHOLAR AT YORK
Then come
Albinus,! Clement, Prosper too,
36
Paulinos and Arator.
Lactantius, Fortunatus.
Next we view Ranged in line
Virgilius Maro, Statins, Lucan, shine.
Donatus, Priscian, Probus, Phocas, start The roll of masters in grammatic art.
Eutychius, Servius, Pompey, each extend
The
list.
Comminian brings
find,
it
to
an end.
There shalt thou
O
reader,
many more
Famed
"Whose
for their style, the masters of old lore,
many volumes
singly to rehearse
Were
far too tedious for our present verse.'
The
large
list
of authors does not of course fulfil the
expectations roused by Alcuin's glowing promise of " all the Latin writers " in addition to " those that glorious Greece transferred to Kome."
This spacious literary vista must be narrowed until
it
includes only the comparatively few Latin
and
fewer Greek writers, mainly ecclesiastical and only
in small part classical, which were
available in
Yet single books meant something then. They were objects to be treasured individually rather than shelved away by thousands. A private collection of an hundred was so large as to be thought remarkable. Hence it is easy to understand how the books in the York library, although
Alcuin's time.
For the sake of convenience in translation I have written name of the learned abbat and friend of Bede, instead of the absurd Alcuinus of some manuscripts or tbe sensible, but metrically unmanageable Alcimus of Froben'a
1
Albinus, the
emendation.
>
Vertw de SanctU Eboracensia Eccleaise, w.
1635-1561.
36
ALCUIN
probably to be reckoned by hundreds rather than thousands, embraced substantially the whole of
whatever learning there was.
Alcuin's
list is
therefore significant.
Though the
restraints of metre
Isidore, yet
hindered him from including
with this exception the great school
books of the time are mentioned, the books which
were the basis of his activity as a teacher, fijst Besides at York and afterwards in Frankland. the unmentioned Isidore, whose writings were thoroughly familiar to him, he possesses Cassiodorus, Boethius and Bede, of the great medieval text-books. Of classical antiquity he has parts of
and Cicero, the poets Virgil, Statins and Lucan, and the grammarians Donatus and
Aristotle
Priscian, as his chief authors.
The
fathers of the
Latin Church were also in the library, and among
them were books
fill
of Augustine, Jerome,
Ambrose
and Gregory the Great.
influence
The
lesser authors
who
in his metrical catalogue exercise only a slight
on his own writings. Whether any of list were in Greek is not a matter It is true that Theodore of of much concern here. Tarsus had brought in the teaching of Greek at
the books in his
Canterbury, his influence subsequently extending
to York, to
and that the Irish influence was favorable studies, so that there were probably Greek books in the York library. But Alcuin, though he may have been acquainted with Greek sufficiently
Greek
to read
it
a
little,
confined his
own
literary search-
ings to Latin.
Accordingly, though Aristotle and
ALCUm THE SCHOLAR AT YORK
it is
37
some of the Greek fathers appear in his catalogue, more than likely that he is thinking only of Latin versions. All the Aristotle he employs may
be found either in Boethius or in the treatise
On
the Categories falsely attributed to Augustine.
His general school learning reposes conservatively on the old authorities, Boethius, Cassiodorus, IsiEven Boethius and Cassiodorus dore and Bede. are more admired than used, so that he practically depends upon the other two. If Martianus Capella was in the York library, no mention of the fact is
made.
Alcuin's fame as master of the school
was
great.
He handed down
to his pupils the learning he had
received and imbued
them with that
desire of study.^Elbert
ing the liberal arts
with which Egbert and
had indoctrinated him.
fact faithfully
He was
pupils.
well aware of the
precarious condition of learning and impressed this
upon his
Years afterward, in
a
letter to Charles the Great,
fidelity in this respect.
he recalled Egbert's " My master Egbert," he
wrote, " often used to say to
me
'
it
of
men who
discovered the arts, and
was the wisest it would be a
great disgrace to allow them to perish in our day. But many are now so pusillanimous as not to care about knowing the reasons of the things the Creator has made.' Thou knowest weU how agreeable a
study
is
arithmetic,
how
necessary
it is
for under-
standing the Holy Scriptures, and
courses,
how
pleasant
is
the knowledge of the heavenly bodies and their
and yet there are few who care to know
38
ALCtriN
is
such things, and what
worse, those
who
seek to
Such was the spirit of his teaching and such the estimation in which he held up learning to the view of his Many flocked to hear him, and he soon pupils. became the best known master in Britain, And yet the names of only a few of his pupils at York have been handed down. One of them was Liudger, who came from the Continent to hear him, subsequently returning and becoming the first bishop of Miinster in Saxony. If there were other foreign pupils, as is not improbable, their names are lost. The others, whose names remain, were Anglo-Saxons. Eminent among them was the younger Eanbald, who became archbishop of York in 796. He is the Symeon of
Alcuin's letters.
nence.
study them are considered blameworthy."
Three others stand next in promi-
They
are Witzo, Fridugis, and Sigulf,
who
were so attached to their master that they followed him from York to Frankland. Witzo returned to Britain in 796, but the other two never came back. Another was Osulf apparently the " prodigal son "
,
over
whom
Alcuin grieved so deeply in his
letters.
He
seems to be known later under the pseudonym Cuculus. Of his other pupils we know little beyond the names of Onias, Calwinus, Eaganhard, Waldramn, and Joseph.
The
continuity of his residence at
York was
broken by successive journeys which prepared the way for his final removal to the Continent. His first journey was taken in company with -Albert
before 766 into Frankland, and perhaps included
a
ALCUm THE SCHOLAR AT YORK
visit to
later,
39
Rome.
The second journey was somewhat
It
but earlier than 780.
visit
was probably on
this
later
that Alcuin stopped at Pavia, where
Charles the Great was tarrying on his
way home-
ward from
Italy.
Alcuin there attended the public
Jew and Peter of grammar, and thus came under the monarch's notice. His third visit was the one which resulted in transferring him from York to Frankland. It occurred early in 781, a few months after the death of -Albert, whom the elder Eanbald succeeded as archbishop of York Alcuin was sent by Eanbald to Rome to obtain from the Pope the archbishop's pallium. On this occasion he met Charles, who was again in Italy, at Parma, and was invited to leave Britain and make his home in Frankland, with a view to establishing learning Alcuin hesitated, but promised in that kingdom. he could obtain consent of his archto come in case and of the king of his own country. He bishop secured their consent and departed for the palace of Charles at Aachen in 782, thus finally giving up
disputation between Lullus the
Pisa, the king's instructor in
his place as master of the school at York.
CHAPTER in
ALCUIN THE MASTER OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
AJ>. 782-796
Alcuin arrived at the court of Charles, accompanied by a few of his faithful pupils from York,
and entered at once upon his duties. Being at that time forty-seven years of age, his scholarship and character were already developed and seasoned.
His impending task was not a further development of the learning he had received at York, but its introduction and diffusion in Frankland. For such a task he was admirably equipped, inasmuch as he brought with him all the prestige that came from being master of the best school of Western Christendom, and was additionally favored by the
Anglo-Saxon scholarship he repreand therefore suitable for schooling the minds of the untutored Franks. He was also seven years older
fact that the
sented was of an eminently practical cast
than Charles, a disparity in age sufficient to make
him
acceptable as the king's learned adviser and
same time not great enough to sympathy and companionship. The plight of learning in Frankland at this time was deplorable. Whatever traditions had found
guide,
and
at the
interfere with
40
THE MASTER OP THE PALACE SCHOOL
their
41
way from
the early Gallic schools into the
education of the Franks had long since been scattered and obliterated in the wild disorders which
characterized the times of the Merovingian kings.
The monastic and cathedral schools that had formerly flourished were then rudely broken up, the monasteries themselves being often bestowed as residences on royal favorites and thus wholly turned from a sacred to a barbarous use. The copying of books almost ceased, and all that can be found that pretends to the name of literature in this time is the dull chronicle or ignorantly
There had indeed been a soa centre of rudimentary instruction for the court, but even in this studies and letters played a very inconsiderable part as It was not one of the incidents of court life. learning have possible that should at best more than a precarious toleration, so long as the Franks remained unsettled in their social order. Exposed on the south to their Saracenic foe, and on the north and east to the stout Saxons and terrible Avars or Huns, they were consequently in danger of being ground to pieces between the two forces of MohamBut in 732 Charles medanism and heathenism.
conceived legend.
called
palace
school,
Martel, the grandfather of Charles the Great, shat-
Moslem hope of a conquest of Frankland at the battle of Tours. In 771 Charles himself, on whom was to devolve the conquest of the heathen Huns and Saxons, became sole king of His earliest efforts, however, were the Franks.
tered forever the
42
ALCUIN
Lombards who had Pope Hadrian, the first step in that series of events which ended in establishing the spiritual supremacy of the papacy, on the one hand, alongside of and supported by the temporal supremacy of the emperor, on the other. From 774 to 780 Charles was busy with the old Moslem foe, still menacing his kingdom, though unable to compass its destruction, and with the more formidable Saxons. He visited Italy in 780, when, as we have seen, he invited Alcuin to leave Britain. In 781 he returned across the Alps to his kingdom, and the next year received Alcuin and installed him as master over the revived school
directed towards subduing the
given
much annoyance
to
—
The next eight years (782-790) witnessed his continuous furtherance of Alcuin's
of the palace.
educational projects,
first
in the narrower circle
of the palace school and then in the advancement of both higher studies and general rudimentary
education throughout his kingdom.
Let us enter the school of the palace at Aachen. sits as master assisted by the obedient three who had followed him from York, Witzo, Fridugis,
Alcuin
—
and Sigulf.
ness
Charles himself
his pupils.
is
foremost in eageris
among
Beside him
Liutgard,
the queen, the last and best beloved of his wives,
and not unworthy to be his companion in study. Alcuin called her affectionately his " daughter, '^
^^filia
mea
Liutgarda, "
^
and his contemporary and
friend, Theodulf, the bishop of Orleans, celebrated
lEp.63,Jaff^.
THE MASTEK OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
in verse her nobility of character.
is
43
His delineaand images the gentle queen at the court school, earnestly bending her mind to "Among them," he writes, Alcuin's instruction. " sits the fair lady Liutgard, resplendent in mind and pious in heart. Simple and noble alike confess her fair in her accomplishments and fairei Her hand is generous, hei yet in her virtues. disposition gentle and her speech most sweet. She is a blessing to all and a harm to none. Artion
most
lifelike
dently pursuing the best studies, she stores the
liberal
arts
^
in
the retentive repository of her
mind."
Gisela, the only one of the four sisters of
Charles of
whom we
also a pupil,
have any full knowledge, was coming once and again to the school
from her retirement as abbess of Chelles. The three princes, his sons, Charles, Pepin and Lewis,
also attended, the last of these succeeding his father
as emperor.
Two of his
daughters were also pupils,
the fair-haired princess Kotrud and her gentler sis-
bert,
There were also his son-in-law, Angiland his cousins, the two brothers Adelhard and Wala, with their sister Gundrada. In addition to the members of the royal family there were Einhard, the king's intimate friend and later his biographer, Eiculf, who became archbishop of Mayence, Alcuin's beloved friend Arno, who was later archbishop of Salzburg, and the able Theodulf, afterward bishop and archbishop of Orleans. After the fashion of the time, Alcuin bestowed on
ter Gisela.
i
Carmina,
III, 1,
Sinuond's edition, p. 181>
41
ALCUIN
of this charmed circle fanciful pseuas
the
members donyms and,
Scripture.
was his wont,
it
justified the act
by
Explaining
calls Eulalia,
in a letter to Gundrada,
whom
as the
he
he writes, "Intimacy of
friendship often warrants a change of name, even
Lord himself changed Simon into Peter, and
called the sons of Zebedee the 'sons of Thimder,' a
practice approved not only in ancient times, but
name
modern day." ^ Alcuin himself assumed the which he prefixed to Albinus, a modified form of his own name. Charles is usually called David, after the warrior king of Israel, and sometimes is styled Solomon for his wisdom.^ Queen Liutgard becomes Ava, and his sister Gisela is Lucia. His son Pepin is Julius, and of his two daughters, Kotrud is Columba, and Gisela is Delia. Angilbert is Homer, Adelhard is Antony, and
in our of Flaccus,
Wala
leel.
is
Arsenius.
is
Riculf
Einhard, his secretary, is BezeDamoetas. Arno, whose name
means an eagle, is appropriately called Aquila, and Theodulf, the poetic bishop of Orleans, becomes Pindar. Of his pupils from York, Sigulf is Vetulus, Witzo is Candidus and Eridugis is Nathanael. Another pupil, Higbod, is called Macharius, and
Alcuin' s fancy does not exhaust itself imtil he has
decorated Audulf, the seneschal of the palace, and
Magenfrid, the king's chamberlain, with the names
Ep. 125, Migne. " Cernite Salomonem nostram in diademate fnlgentem sapi' entise." De Animx Satione, in Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol.
1
*
01,619.
THE MASTER OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
of
tf
of
Menalcas
It
and
Thyrsis,
the
two
swains
Virgil.
was no easy task that was
set before
him; for
the court school was not only composed of untu-
tored minds, but embraced
among
it is
its
pupils the
youthful princes and princesses, and at the same
time their elders, so that
efit
great proof of
Alcuin's tact that he was able to interest and ben-
such a heterogeneous
circle.
We may be sure
was largely conducted by the method of question and answer, Alcuin often preparing beforehand questions and answers alike, and that the substance of it at the start was grammar. And yet he went beyond this in his excursions over "the plains of arithmetical art," and in astronomy, rhetoric and dialectics, so that the palace school soon became the one centre within the
that his instruction
royal dominions for the prosecution of higher studies.
The exigencies
only
to be
all his tact,
of his position
but unflagging activity.
demanded not He had
more than a skilful teacher of docile pupils, awakened minds roved restlessly about from one question and puzzle to another, and with
for their
these they plied their master assiduously, not the
least persistent of his questioners being the
king
himself.
to
Charles wanted to
it
know everything and
know
at once.
His strong, uncurbed nature
eagerly seized on learning, both as a delight for him-
and a means of giving stability to his governso, while he knew he must be docile, he was at the same time imperious. Alcuin knew how
self
ment, and
46
to
ALCUm
meet him, and at need could be either patiently and reproving. Thus, on one occasion when he had been informed of the great learning of Augustine and Jerome, he impatiently demanded of Alcuin, " Why can I not have twelve clerks such as these? " Twelve Augustines and Jeromes and to be made arise at the king's bidding! Alcuin was shocked. "What!" he discreetly rejoined, "the Lord of heaven and earth had but two such, and wouldst thou have twelve?" But his personal affection for the king was most unselfish, and he
jocular or grave
!
consequently took great delight in stimulating his
desire
"0 that I could forever for learning. sport with thee in Pierian verse " he writes, " or
!
scan the lofty constellations of the sky, or be studying the fair forms of numbers, or turn aside to the
stupendous sayings of the ancient fathers, or treat
of the sacred precepts of our eternal salvation."
Here
is
mention of several studies which they pur:
which we may here include sued together poetry, astronomy, arithmetic, the writunder grammar,
—
—
ings of the fathers, and theology proper, and of
these the king's
favorite
was astronomy.
He
that
/'
studied everything Alcuin set before him, but had
special anxiety to learn all about the
moon
was needed to calculate Easter. With such an eager and impatient pupil as Charles, the other scholars
were soon inspired to beset Alcuin with endless puzzling questions, and there are not wanting evidences that some of them were disposed to levity But he was and even carped at his teachings.
THE MASTER OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
47
indefatigable, rising with the sun to prepare for
In one of his poetical exercises he says of himself that " as soon as the ruddy charioteer of
teaching.
the
dawn
suffuses the liquid deep
with the new
light of day, the old
man
rubs the sleep of night
from his eyes and leaps at once from his couch, running straightway into the fields of the ancients to pluck their flowers of correct speech and scatter
them
in sport before his boys."
^
He
begs Charles
to protect
him against
is
their levity, yet not because
he himself
old boxer Entellus
weak, for he plainly says that the is still equal to overthrowing
any youthful Dares. ^ Books and studies were not his only care as a teacher, for he was not wanting in plain speech in regard to the lax morals of the court and of Charles himself. Whatever he gave in the way of private, friendly admonition by word of mouth is of course lost to us, but we have on record in his Dialectics how he reasoned with the king on temperance as one of the highest kingly virtues, and in the treatise dedicated to Gundrada (Eulalia) on The Nature of the Soul, his pointed admonition, " Behold our Solomon, resplendent with the diadem of wisdom. Imitate his most noble traits. Cherish his virtues, but avoid his vices." ^ When it is remem-bered that Alcuin's nature was peaceable, even to timorousness, and that Charles was a man who
1
2
Carmina, CCXXXI, Migne, CI, 782. Carmina, CCXXX, Migne, CI, 782.
Migne, CI, 619.
•
48
ALCUm
such faithful,
plain
could be fierce to cruelty,
speaking on the part of Flaccus concerning his King David seems no less heroic than was the
conduct of Nathan the prophet toward King David If, then, on occasion he did not in Jerusalem.
spare the monarch,
whom he both
loved and feared,
faithful dealing
we
are prepared to find the
same
with his lesser pupils. And such was the fact. Again and again he exhorts both princes and princesses, by name, not only to be discreet and wise,
but to be chaste ; and at least on the young prince Lewis his teachings were not lost, for when he succeeded his father as emperor, though he
fell short of
him
in studies, he so far exceeded
him
in holiness
of life that he earned the title of Lewis the Pious.
The plans of Charles, however, were not restricted
to the palace school, important as
tre
it was as a cenand example for the learning he hoped to establish. He did not intend to rule a barbarian kingdom. Therefore he aimed to civilize and establish his people with Christian learning, and in this of course Alcuin's counsel was indispensable and his co-operation enthusiastic. " If only there were many who would follow the illustrious desire of your intent," he wrote to Charles, "perchance a new, nay, a more excellent Athens might be
founded in Frankland; for our Athens, being ennobled with the mastership of Christ the Lord,
would surpass all the wisdom of the studies of the Academy. That was instructed only in the Platonic disciplines and had fame for its culture in the
:
:
THE MASTER OF THE PAXACE SCHOOL
seven
arts,
49
but ours being enriched beyond this
with the sevenfold plenitude of the Holy Spirit,
would excel all the dignity of secular learning." ^ Acting under such impulses, Charles issued in 787 that famous capitulary, or proclamation, which
is
the
first
general charter of education for the
It is in the
middle ages.
form of a
letter to
the abbats of the different monasteries, reproving their illiteracy and exhorting them " not only not
to neglect the study of letters, but to apply
selves thereto with perseverance,"
themand especially
to choose out for this great
work "men who are
capitulary is so imIt
both able and willing to learn, and also desirous
of instructing others."
The
portant that
it
deserves complete presentation.
reads as follows in the only copy that has been
preserved, the one addressed to Baugulf, abbat of
the great monastery at Fulda
"Charles, by the grace of God, King of the Franks and of the Lombards, and Patrician of the Romans, to Baugulf, abbat, and to his whole congregation and the faithful committed to his charge " Be it known to your devotion, pleasing to God, that in conjunction with our faithful we have judged it to be of utility that, in the bishoprics and monasteries committed by Christ's favor to our charge, care should be taken that there shall be not only a regular manner of life and one conformable to holy
religion,
but also the study of
letters,
each to teach
and learn them according to
l£p.86Migne;
his ability
a«d the
110 Jaff^
60
ALCUIN
For even as due observance of house tends to good morals, so zeal
divine assistance.
the rule of
tlie
on the part of the teacher and the taught imparts order and grace to sentences; and those who seek
to please
lect to please
ten
*
God by living aright should also not neghim by right speaking. It is writby thine own words shalt thou be justified or
condemned'; and although right doing be preferable to right speaking, yet must the knowledge of what is right precede right action. Every one, therefore, should strive to understand what it is that he would fain accomplish; and this right
understanding will be the sooner gained according as the utterances of the tongue are free from error.
And
if false
speaking
it
is
to be
shunned by
all
men,
especially should
be shunned by those
who have
During
elected to be the servants of the truth.
past years
we have
often received letters from
different monasteries informing us that at their
sacred services the brethren offered
up prayers on
our behalf; and we have observed that the thoughts
contained in these letters, though in themselves
most
just,
were expressed in uncouth language, and
while pious devotion dictated the sentiments, the
unlettered tongue was unable to express
aright.
them
Hence there has
arisen in our minds the
fear lest, if the skill to write rightly were thus
would the power of rightly comprehending the Sacred Scriptures be far less than was fitting, and we all know that though verbal errors be dangerous, errors of the understanding are yet
lacking, so too
THE MASTER OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
more
so.
51
We
exhort you, therefore, not only not
to neglect the study of letters, but to apply your-
selves thereto with perseverance
and with that
humility which
is
well pleasing to God; so that
you may be able to penetrate with greater ease and
certainty the mysteries of the
Holy
Scriptures.
For as these contain images, tropes, and similar figures, it is impossible to doubt that the reader will arrive far more readily at the spiritual sense according as he is the better instructed in learning. Let there, therefore, be chosen for this work men who are both able and willing to learn, and also desirous of instructing others and let them apply themselves to the work with a zeal equalling the earnestness with which we recommend it to them. " It is our wish that you may be what it behoves religious in the soldiers of the Church to be,
;
—
heart, learned in discourse, pure in act, eloquent,
in speech; so that all
who approach your house
life,
in
order to invoke the Divine Master or to behold the
excellence of the religious
may
be edified in
beholding you and instructed in hearing you discourse or chant, and may return home rendering thanks to God most High.
" Fail not, as thou regardest our favor, to send a
copy of this
letter to all
thy suffragans and to
all
the monasteries; and let no
monk go beyond
his
monastery to administer justice or to enter the Adieu." ^ assemblies and the voting-places.
1 1
fine version of
]^f.
Migne, Patrologia Latina, XCVIII, 895. I have taken the Mr. MoUinger in his Schools of Charles the Greats
97-99.
52
ALCUIN
The
voice
is
the voice of Charles, but the hand
is
the hand of Alcuin.
The vigorous and commanding
it
tone
is
the king's own, but he could never have
in the
devised the argument and cast
the traditions of learning so perfectly unless he
mould of had
been assisted by his master, and yet throughout the document the influences of Charles and Alcuin on
each other are so happily blended that the mind
and
spirit that
dominate
it
are one.
It is not sur-
prising, then, that it is
the most important state
paper of his reign on the subject of education; for
although
its
application in practice was not lasting,
of
and no
enduring restoration
education was
was neither the fault of the capitIt was the necessary result of the insecurely protected social order. The bishops and abbats did respond in the lifetime of Charles and for a generation later; and while the society which he had ruled remained settled, so
effected, yet this
ulary nor of the king.
long the schools flourished, going
the general crash of the tenth century,
down only in when a new
But though
barbarism overran Western Europe.
of his exertions
itself
the schools founded under the stimulating influence
had but a short
life,
the capitulary
remains to show us the great possibilities of
the ideas which in inchoate form lay in his mind.
First
and most noteworthy
is
the assumption of the
right of the state in the person of its sovereign,
who
is still
only a king of the Franks and not yet
head of the Holy
Roman Empire,
eral attention to education,
to compel a genand in particular to see
THE MASTER OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
to
it
53
that the Church should keep
up the study
of
letters.
A
second 'idea worthy of notice
is that,
jects,
without a due study and teaching of secular subthe servants of the Church will be unable to fulfil their proper functions and will be greatly
hampered
in understanding the Scriptures.
The
capitulary does not stop here, however, and insists
both on the training of the monks and priests in learning, and moreover on the raising up of a body
of teachers to perpetuate the great
tion, " men
who
are both able
work of educaand willing to learn
and also desirous of instructing others." It is a pity that so few records of the time remain which cast light on the actual effect of the capituStill there is no reason to doubt that it was lary. generally obeyed, and there are not wanting evidences here and there of the institution of schools and of further commands of the king to extend and strengthen learning. In the very year in which the capitulary was issued, Charles, according to one of his annalists, " brought with him from Rome into Frankland masters in grammar and reckoning, and
everywhere ordered the expansion of the study of letters; for before our lord King Charles, there
We have
had been no study of the liberal arts in Gaul." ^ also a letter from the king in 788 to the
abbat of Fulda,'' charging him to see to the schools
in that place.
issued, laying
1
In 789 a second capitulary was
down more
Monumenta
definite instructions,
and
Jaffe,
Carolina, p. 343, note.
3 Epistolfs Carolina, 3, Jaffd.
54
ALCUm
this time, or perhaps earlier, belongs the so-
urgently enjoining their observance on the monks.*
To
Homilary which Charles promulgated in order to promote the correction of the badly copied
called
books of Scripture, containing the following significant passage " As it is our desire to improve the
:
condition of the Church,
we make
it
our task to
restore with the most watchful zeal the study of letters, a task almost forgotten through the neglect
of our ancestors.
jects,
We
set
therefore enjoin on our sub-
so far as they
may be
able, to
study the
them the example." " issued from Aachen in 789, Another capitulary, gave further aid to education by insisting that
liberal arts,
and we
candidates for the priesthood should be taken, not
from the children of the servile class, but from the sons of freemen * and, moreover, as late as the year 802, still another capitulary enjoined that "every one should send his son to study letters, and that the child should remain at school with all diligence until he should become well instructed in learning."* He secured promotion to influential sees of men who were learned and full of zeal in the Such were Paulinus, the cause of education.
;
patriarch of Aquileia; Leidrad, the archbishop of
Lyons;
Orleans.
Arno,
archbishop of
Salzburg;
Riculf,
archbishop of Mayence; and Theodulf, bishop of
A report of Leidrad to
I,
Charles, concernis still
ing the schools established in his diocese,
1
Pertz, Leges,
66.
»
Baluze,
I,
209.
1,
» Pertz, Leges, 1, 44.
* Pertz,
Leges,
107.
THE MASTER OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
preserved, from which
it is
56
clear that besides the
coinmoii village schools there
maintained, and that
it
was a cathedral school was in some sense prepara-
tory to the school of the palace.^ Theodulf, the bishop of Orleans, carried out in his diocese the instructions of his king most thoroughly by organizing schools in every parish for the children of
all,
enjoining upon the priests to exact no fees for
their teaching.
His words are: "Let the priests
hold schools in the towns and villages, and if any of the faithful wish to entrust their children
to
them
for the learning of letters, let
them not
and teach such children. Moreover, let them teach them from pure affection, remembering that it is written, 'the wise shall shine as the splendor of the firmament,' and 'they that
refuse to receive
instruct
stars
many
in righteousness shall shine as the
forever and forever.'
And
let
them exact
no price from the children for their teaching, nor receive anything from them, save what their parents may offer voluntarily and from affection." ' From these and other scattered notices, we are able to form some notion of the extent to which
1
De Scholis celebrioribus seu a Carolo Magna sen post eundem
instauratis. Launois, Opera, IV, p. 14. " Presbyteri per villas et vicos scholas babeant et si quilibet fidelium suos parvulos ad discendas literas eis commendare vult,
2
Carolum per Occidentem
eos suscipere ac docere non renuant, sed eos doceant.
.
.
cum somma
caritate
.
Cum ergo
eos decent, nihil ab eis pretii pro
hac re exigant, ezcepto quod eis parentes caritatis studio sua voluntate obtulerint." Migne, Patrologia Latina, CV, pp. 191
and
207.
66
ALCUm
Uni-
the ideas of the king were understood and also of the character of the schools established.
versal provision for elementary
instruction
was
contemplated and to some extent carried out, and in Theodulf we see for the first time the assertion
of the principle that elementary instruction should
be gratuitous.
Had
it
been possible to follow this
up with the next and most natural step, namely, making of the elementary instruction not only universal and gratuitous but compulsory, the consequences would of course have been far reaching. But though Charles finally went so far as to enjoin
that " every one should send his son to school to
study letters and that the child should remain at school with all diligence until he should become
well instructed in learning," the idea of organized
compulsion does not seem to have crossed his mind.
was reserved for modern times. In regard to the character of the schools themselves, it should be observed that they were not all The palace school was unique. It of one sort. was the chief centre of culture, a very rudimentary learned academy, but yet the head and centre of
It
the education of the times.
The other
schools
may
be roughly divided into the monastic and cathedral in one class and the parish or village schools in The monastic and cathedral schools the other.
gave elementary and, in some instances, superior
instruction, while the village schools
were purely
elementary.
parish priest.
The head of a village school was the The head of a monastic school was
THE MASTER OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
its
67
abbat,
who was
responsible to the head of his
order and thus to Rome.
of the diocese,
to
The head
of a cathedral
school was the scholasticus appointed
by the bishop
who in his turn was also answerable But the abbats of the monasteries did not acknowledge jurisdiction on the part of the bishops over them, and this led to frequent conflicts whenever the bishop attempted to exercise such In fact, Alcuin himself was in this jurisdiction.
Rome.
way brought
into unfriendly relations with his
own
friend, Theodulf, the bishop of Orleans, at the time
cese.
when Alcuin was abbat of St. Martin in that dioThe monastic schools came to be divided
into
two
sides, the interior
and the exterior
school.
is,
The
boys
interior school received only the dblati, that
who were
offered for the monastic life.
The
exterior schools were attended
not to be monks, but priests, and by those
by boys who were who were
intended for secular life. In both the interior and exterior schools instruction was gratuitous. The episcopal or cathedral schools were neither so
strict
nor so flourishing as the monastic schools,
whose exterior side they resembled, educating candidates for the priesthood and children of laymen The scholars were partly maintained generally. by the endowments of the school and, in the case of the laity, to some extent by the payment of Apart from the rigorous discipline of tuition. monastic life exacted of the oblati, there is, however, no essential distinction to be drawn between the instruction furnished in the monasteries and cathe*
58
ALCUIN
It
drals.
began with learning to read and write,
the computus, or art of reckoning, the principal use of which was to determine the church calendar, and
also the art of singing.
Above
this
rudimentary
teaching came the study of grammar, to which great pains was devoted, sometimes followed by rhetoric
and
dialectics,
with
little
or nothing beyond, except
in the greatest monasteries.
also the study of
Of course there was
In the village
Holy
Scripture.
schools nothing but the rudiments were taught, except such scholastically unimportant additions as
the learning of the creed, the Lord's Prayer, and
perhaps parts of the Psalter.
Three stages or levels of advancement are thus
discernible in the education incompletely organized
by Charles and Alcuin.
At the head
of their
or,
hierarchy of schools stands the palace school
to strain the expression severely, the university.
Underneath this and preparatory to
schools, while
it is
the second-
ary teaching of certain monastery and cathedral
primary education
is
is
also found in
monasteries and cathedrals and
the exclusive
substance of instruction in the village schools.
In 790, after eight years of unsparing labor in
the conduct of the palace school and the further-
ance of the king's wider educational projects, Alcuin
returned to York.
Witzo, and then Fridugis, tem-
porarily took his place in the palace school.
He
had never abjured his allegiance to the king of his native Northumbria nor his obedience to the archbishop of York, regarding himself as only a so-
THE MASTER OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
journer at the court of Charles.
natural,
It
69
was therefore
when
the palace school had become well
established,
and the king's commands for founding
other schools had been measurably carried out, that
Alcuin should regard his task among the Franks The limitations under which he as accomplished.
labored at the court must also have become plain;
for with all the lively interest in learning that
was
awakened, there were no such stable guarantees
for its
perpetuation visible in the disposition or
raw Franks as could be compared with the well-settled and vigorous tradition the only steady light of learning in Northumbria,
intelligence of the
—
that
had broken the general darkness
for
now
nearly a century.
The
publicity of a court
and the
fro, whenever Charles moved from Aachen, were far less congenial to him than monastic seclusion, and where could he so naturally turn for this as to his old home in York? There was the peaceful round of ecclesiastical life, there was the great store of books, which he had sadly missed at the court, there were his brethren and some of his old pupils in the home of his youth, and there accordingly was the true retreat for his
journeying to and
declining years.
A dissension
had sprung up shortly before
this
time between Charles and Offa, king of Mercia,
then the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon rulers.
Charles, consenting to Alcuin's visit to Britain, gave
him
letters to Offa
and enabled him
to act as
an
in-
termediary in effecting a reconciliation.
Arrived at
60
ALCUm
York, Alcuin found that Ethelred, in one of those
sudden mutations to which the affairs of the petty kings of the Anglo-Saxons were so liable, had become king of Northumbria. His cruelties and excesses were shocking and went far to discourage the hope of peaceful retirement with which Alcuin Successfully concluding his had returned home. peace-making negotiations with Offa, Alcuin found himself not indisposed to obey the summons which came from Charles to return to his court, where there was new and urgent need for his services. Accordingly he left York for Aachen in 792. Two heresies had sprung up which threatened not only
the ecclesiastical unity of Latin Christendom, but
the peace of Frankland as well.
One was the
teach-
ing of two Spanish bishops, Felix of Urgel and
Elipandus of Toledo, that Christ was not the Son of
God
in the sense of being so
to his Godhead, while as to his
by generation, except as manhood he was
This effort to solve the mystery attaching to the two natures in the person of Christ was known as Adoptionism. Against this heresy Alcuin vindicated the old Church doctrine by several treatises, finally securing its condemnation in 794 by the Council of Frankfort. It is a noteworthy fact that nowhere in his writings is there any call upon the king to use his civil power to
not begotten but adopted.
to have was well that he did not, whether his forbearance was due to a sense of
crush the heresy.
Nor does Charles seem
It
thought of doing
justice,
so.
fondness for theological controversy, or
THE MASTER OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
political expediency.
«!
There
is
reason to believe
that all these motives were influential.
Had
the
king resorted to civil punishment instead of resorting to the more peaceful but equally potent
resource of ecclesiastical condemnation, the politi-
danger was that the Spanish heretics, who were numerous and obstinate, would join themselves to his old Saracen foes in Spain and thus embolden them to harass his kingdom. .i(0 The other heretical foe was also political in its alliances. Irene, the ruler of the Eastern Empire, had done much to re-establish the worship of images, and succeeded in carrying through her designs by
cal
the aid of a dubiously constituted general council
At this council Pope Hadrian was not recognized as in any way the head of the Church, and consequently not only was the primacy of Rome ignored, but the independence and unity of the Western Church was thereby imperilled. He was not Hadrian's dilemma was painful. ready to put the ban of the Church on image-worship in moderation, but felt bound to resist this
held at Nice in 787.
Eastern encroachment on his papal dignity.
If he
acquiesced in the validity of the council's restoration of image-worship, he thereby submitted to the
tyranny of Irene and Constantinople. If he threw himself tipon the sovereigns of the West
political
to support his independence,
he must break with
the East and perhaps consent to condemn image-
which the papacy had countenanced. There was but one king able to aid him, and that
worship,
62
ALCUIN
So in 792, after long concealsent
king was Charles.
of Nice.
ment and avoidance, Hadrian
him the
decrees
Charles of course could not endure that
the Pope should be in vassalage to his political
rival of the East,
and was moreover an abominator
of image-worship. Whatever languid eastern Christians
might do, the independent Franks would never
prostrate themselves in abasement before the effigies
of saints.
He
sent Alcuin the Nicene enactments,
urging him to refute them, and Alcuin devoted himself assiduously to his task. It is in every
way
probable that the so-called Caroline Books, which
appeared at this time as a work of Charles, refuting the Nicene errors and exposing the idolatrous
character of image-worship, are really the
Alcuin.*
work of The Council of Frankfort, which Alcuin attended by the king's request, not only dealt with
the practice of image-worship and to reject
the Adoptionist heresy, but also proceeded to con-
demn
the authority of Nice, and as the result of this
council the two great theologico-political spectres
of the time of Charles were laid.
Meanwhile Alcuin's thoughts were being weaned idea of a return to his own land by the incursions of the Norsemen on its coasts, and especially by the horrible devastation of Lindisfame. His longing for retirement grew stronger and stronger and, after he had passed his sixtieth year, became irrepressible. He earnestly begged Charles to let him go to Fulda and there end his
away from the
1
Monumenta Alcuiniana,
p. 220, note.
THE MASTER OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
days in peace.
63
to the rule of even the abbat of Fulda,
But Charles would not subject him and as the
St.
abbat of the venerable house of
stead.
Martin at Tours
died at that time (796), he appointed Alcuin in his
CHAPTEB IV
ALCUIN THE ABBAT OP TOUBS
A.D. 796-804
The monastery
est in Frankland.
of St. Martin at Tours, on the
banks of the Loire, was one of the oldest and richAdjoining the church wherein the relics of St. Martin himself were enshrined, honored by gifts of the Prankish kings and hallowed by the devout visits of many a band of pilgrims, it was easily the first abbey within the dominions of
Charles, not yet rivalled even
by Fulda.
tilled
Its rich
endowments, consisting of landed estates scattered
in various parts of the
kingdom and
by thouits
sands of
serfs,
yielded great revenues toward
support, so that
when Charles appointed Alcuin
gift,
to
be
its
abbat, he conferred the highest monastic bene-
fice
within his
disregarding precedent in his
zeal to do honor to his old teacher,
who had no reason
monk,
to expect such elevation, Alcuin not being a
but a simple deacon of the church at York. Yet he was a monk in spirit, " a true monk without the
monk's vow," as his biographer admiringly writes, and Alcuin may have had such relations to monastic
life at
York
as to
make
his selection at least eccle-
siastically unobjectionable.
The monks at Tours
64
ALCUm THE ABBAT OF
TOtJES
66
had been living with less strictness than their vows required, and it was therefore Alcuin's first care to subject them to the rigorous rule of the Benedictine order. This was not accomplished without a strong effort, and the importation of brethren from other
monasteries to assist in reviving the strictness he so
desired to see practised.
But Alcuin's
efforts
were
life.
not limited to a simple revival of the monastic
His house was to be a centre not only of austerity, His provident mind perceived but of learning. clearly that if the learning which had been established with such pains in Northumbria was already in danger of destruction, and if, moreover, the learning he himself had brought thence into Frankland would lose a powerful protector after Charles should be gone, the best service which he could render by way of forestalling the uncertain outlook was to raise up by his own personal teaching, in the few years that remained to him, a body of pupils so devoted to learning and so considerable in number, that there might be good hope of passing on the tradition of studies through their hands. It was thus that learning had been saved before by being literally handed down from one teacher to the next, from Benedict Biscop to Bede, from Bede to Egbert, and from Egbert to Alcuin, so that in the eyes of such a respecter of traditional methods as Alcuin was, it might well seem the only way of discharging his duty in his turn.
Accordingly he set about his work with the same
industry and zeal that had marked his earlier teach*
66
ing,
ALCUIN
though in a soberer and at times a severer Soon after his installation at Tours, he wrote to Charles a letter which furnishes glimpses of the beginning of his work. "I, your riaccus," he writes,^ "following out your exhortation and desire, strive to minister to some in the house of St. Martin the honeys of Holy Scripture. Others I seek to inebriate with the old wine of the ancient disciplines, and still others will I begin to nourish with the apples of grammatical subtlety. Again, I endeavor to irradiate the minds of others with the order of the stars, even as a painter would illumispirit.
dome of a church,' being made all things to all men so that I may instruct many for the advantage of the holy Church of God
nate by his figures the
honor of your kingdom, that the grace God may not be found vain in me, nor the generosity of your kindness of none effect." There is something of the glow of his earlier years
for the
and
of Almighty
in this allegorical description.
He
is
once more at
his old work, teaching the Scriptures, teaching the " ancient disciplines " or liberal arts, starting be-
ginners in grammar, and instructing others more
The
advanced in the king's favorite study, astronomy. studies which he had begun to cultivate at
plants finally to the abbey at Tours.
Ep. 78 Jaffe 43 Migne. The clause translated " even as a painter would illuminate by his figures the dome of a church," is obscure in the text of Alcuin's letter. I give what seems to be the meaning.
1
;
York, and introduced at the palace, he now trans-
s
ALCUIN THE ABBAT OF TOURS
But
his activity
67
was straitened at
first
by the
lack of books, and of this he informs the king,
asking leave to send some of the younger monks to
York
to obtain them.
"I, your servant," he con-
tinues, " lack the rarer books of scholastic erudition
which I had in
industry of
labors.
my own country through the devoted my master -lElbert, and by my own
so I mention this to your excellency,
it
And
in the hope
may
please the
wisdom
of your
counsel that I should send some of the youth here
to bring to us the necessary books,
and thus fetch
in the Euboric
into Frankland the flowers of Britain, so that besides
the 'garden inclosed' that
city, there
is
now
may
likewise be in the Turonic city
'orchards of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, ' and
thus shall 'the south wind come and blow upon our
gardens' along the river Loire 'that the spices
flow out.' Thus indeed shall be fulwhich follows in the Book of Canticles,* whence I have taken this parable: 'My beloved shall come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits,' and say to the youth: 'Eat, friends! yea, drink and be drunken, O beloved Moreover the word of the prophet Isaiah exhorting to the study of wisdom shall also be fulfilled: 'Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and ye who have no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without any price.' " What books Alcuin received from York as the result of this request we do not
thereof
may
filled that
!
'
1
Solomon's Song
iv, 12, 13, 16,
and
y, 1.
;
68
ALCUIN
know, except that they were of course such books as he himself had access to when there. Isidore and Bede would naturally be sent for among the books on the liberal arts, and in fact we have knowledge of the copying of the works of Bede under Alcuin's supervision at Tours. There were undoubtedly many volumes of the fathers, which Alcuin felt necessary to have brought from Britain for when he wrote elaborately some years before against the Adoptionist heresy and image-worship,
he had to resort to the library at York to obtain his numerous quotations from the patristic writings. It is also worth noticing that the spirit in which he proposed to teach at Tours had the same liberality of intention which had characterized the capitulary
of his friend and helper, Theodulf, enjoining upon
the priests of his diocese to teach without exacting
Such is the meaning of Alcuin's quo" Ye who have no money, come, from Isaiah tation yea, come, buy wine and milk without and eat, buy without any price." The thought of and money for teaching pay was in Alcuin's not exacting mind, and the fact that the teaching was gratuitous, while the value of what was taught was inestimable, seemed to him one of the strongest incentives It is interesting to study on the part of his pupils. connection, in this some verses ascribed to note, to fork in the up at street of and set a Salzburg him, in direction way led one to tavern the a and where
tuition fees.
:
in the other to a school.
They
read, "
O
traveler,
hastening through the street! halt on thy way and
ALCUIN THE ABBAT OF TOURS
read these versicles studiously.
lead
69
The one
side will
him who
is
desires drink to a tavern, but the
other
blest with a double advantage.
Then
which way thou wilt! either to go and drink, or to go and learn from holy If thou wilt drink, thou must also pay books. money, but if thou wilt learn, thou shalt have what
choose,
traveler,
O
thou seekest for nothing."
^
he says,
cise,
Let us return to his letter to Charles. Nothing, is a loftier attainment or a pleasanter exer-
a stronger defence against vice, or more praiseworthy in every way, than studies and learning, to which we are exhorted in every page of Scripture. Nothing, he reminds the king, is so excellent for the young princes in the palace, now in the flower
of youth, as to pursue their studies, for
it is
these
which will bring them honor in their old age and finally qualify them for eternal blessedness. "According to the measure of my small ability," he
impressively continues, " I shall not be slothful in
sowing the seeds of wisdom among your servants in
these regions, being mindful of the saying: *In the
morning sow thy seed and in the evening withhold not thine hand, for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both In the morning I sowed the shall be alike good.
'
seed in Britain in the flourishing studies of youth,
and now, as
my
blood
is
growing
chill at evening,
I cease not to
sow the seed
in Frankland, praying
that both alike
1
may
prosper by the grace of God."
Migne, Vol. CI, 757, Carm. CXIX.
70
ALCUIN
The evening is sensibly approaching, and Alcuin grows more and more conscious of the shortness of His purpose, however, the time at his command.
is
only the more resolute, his desire the more ear-
nest, that the
good work he had begun in Britain and
continued in Frankland
sets
may
prosper.
And
so he
himself busily to the consummation of his
work, and the abbey at Tours at once becomes the
best school in Frankland.
In addition to the strict enforcement of monastic and the instruction given in the school both to candidates for the religious life and to the laity, Alcuin was occupied in supervising the copying of manuscripts in the scriptorium, and the books that were made became models for His careful particularity in copyists thereafter. regard to punctuation and orthography, and his employment of a clearer and neater form of letter,
discipline
are to be seen to-day as the distinguishing features
of the
body of
classical
and
patristic manuscripts
dating from the ninth century and written in what
Of course, the books which issued from Tours are in no way to
are called the Caroline minuscules.
be compared with the stately uncial manuscripts
Roman Empire, but they are a vast improvement, both in appearance and accuracy, over the slovenly transcripts made in the time of the Merovingian kings. Alcuin himself had served
of the late
as a copyist at York,
and his treatise On Orthography
was
in all probability the reference-book of the
scribes as they
worked under his supervision at
ALCUm THE ABBAT OF TOURS
Tours.
71
There are not wanting indications in his
writings of the scrupulous regard he paid to these
matters,
and of the discouraging ignorance on the
In a from Tours, in 799, he mentions the fact that he had copied out on some blank parchment, which the king had sent him, a short treatise on correct diction with illustrations and examples from Bede, and another containing "certain figures of arithmetical subtlety composed for amusement," and then adds apologetically: "Although the distinctions and sub-distinctions of punctuation give a fairer aspect to written sentences, yet from the rusticity of scribes their employment has almost disappeared. But even as the glory of all learning and the ornaments of wholesome erudition begin to be seen again, by reason of your noble exertions, so also it seems most fitting that the use of punctuation should also be resumed by scribes. Accordletter written to Charles
part of scribes, which he had to overcome.
ingly, although I accomplish but little, I contend
daily with the rusticity of Tours.
ity so instruct the
Let your author-
may
tate,
youths at the palace that they be able to utter with perfect elegance whatso-
ever the clear eloquence of your thought
so that wheresoever the
may
dic-
parchment bearing
display the excel-
the royal
name
shall go,
it
may
^
lence of the royal learning."
to Charles to
A very delicate hint
to
mind
his
see that the princes at
commas and colons, and Aachen did the same,
as
well as a lament for the general disregard of the
1
£p. 101 Migne; 112JafEd
72
ALCDIN
and
niceties of writing.
accuracies
Alcnin's in-
junctions to the scribes at Tours were repeated
more than once and found expression in some of his verses which seem to have been affixed to the entrance of the scriptorium as a permanent warning. They run as follows ^ " Here let the scribes sit who copy out the words of the Divine Law, and likewise the hallowed sayings of holy fathers. Let them beware of interspersing their own frivolities in the words they copy, nor let a trifler's hand make mistakes through haste. Let. them earnestly
:
seek out for themselves correctly written books to
transcribe, that the flying
pen may speed along the
Let them distinguish the proper sense by colons and commas, and set the points, each one in its due place, and let not him who reads the
right path.
words to them either read falsely or pause suddenly.
It is a noble
work
to write out holy books,
nor shall the scribe fail of his due reward.
ing books
is
Writ-
better than planting vines, for he
who
plants a vine serves his belly, but he
who
writes
a book serves his soul." We can almost reconstruct the scene.
In the between the hours of prayer and the intervals observance of the round of cloister life, come hours for the copying of books under the presiding direcThe young monks file into the tion of Alcuin. and one of them is given the precious scriptorium, volume containing a work of Bede or parchment portion of the Augustine, or else some Isidore or
1
Migne. CI, 745, Carm.
LXVn.
ALCUIN THE ABBAT OF TOURS
Latin Scriptures, or even a heathen author.
all the others seated at their
73
He
reads slowly and clearly at a measured rate while
desks take
words, and thus perhaps a score of copies are
at once.
down his made
Alcuin's observant eye watches each in
turn and his correcting hand points out the mistakes
in orthography
and punctuation.
The master of
is
Charles the Great, in that true humility that
the
charm of his whole behavior, makes himself the writing-master of his monks, stooping to the drudgery of
faithfully
and gently correcting their many puerile
mistakes, and all for the love of studies and the
love of Christ.
Under such guidance and deeply
impressed by the fact that in the copying of a few books they were saving learning and knowledge
from perishing, and thereby offering a service most acceptable to God, the copying in the scriptorium went on in sobriety from day to day. Thus were produced those improved copies of books which
mark the beginning
of a
new age
in the conserving
and transmission of learning. Alcuin's anxiety in this regard was not undue, for the few monasteries where books could be accurately transcribed were
as necessary for publication in that time as are
the great publishing houses to-day.
One other phase
of Alcuin's educational activity
remains to be noticed. It is his literary intercourse with kings and ecclesiastics of influence, touching
the state of learning.
spondence,
letters
if
Five-sixths of his corre-
we may judge by
the three hundred
now
extant, belongs to the eight years
which
74
ALCUIN
elapsed between his coming to Tours and his death,
and the fulness of information and reminiscence
therein preserved
is
of the first historical value for
the latter half of the eighth century.
rich miscellany
it is
From
this
possible to gather enough infor-
mation to warrant a judgment as to the fortunes of learning both in Britain and Frankland, with the added advantage of getting many a personal glimpse
of the leading actors in the educational
movement
wherein Alcuin was the central figure. Some of the letters deal with Britain, for the old man's thoughts turned thither again and again.
His
first
love
allegiance
was his native land, and his home was never renounced. "Never have I
been unfaithful to the people of Britain," he once wrote from the palace of Charles to an Anglo-Saxon
And with even more devotion he wrote same spirit to his brethren of York shortly " My fathers and brethbefore he went to Tours. ren, dearer than all else in the world, pray do not forget me for, alike in life and death, I shall ever And peradventure God in mercy may be yours. grant that you, who nursed my infancy, may bury me in old age. But if some other place shall be
presbyter.^ in the
;
appointed for
my
body, yet I believe that
my
soul
will be granted repose
among
you, through your
holy intercession in prayer.'"*
It
that
was perhaps one of his first letters from Tours was sent to King Offa in response to a request
1
Ep. 15 Jaffe
;
8 Migne.
>Ep. 34Jaffe; 6 Migne.
ALCUIN THE ABBAT OF TOURS
76
that Alcuin should send one of his pupils into
Alcuin complied with Offa's complimenting him on his great zeal for study, "a zeal so great," he writes, "that the light of learning, though extinguished in manyplaces, now shines in your dominions."^ To the same year (796) belongs his congratulatory letter to his former pupil, the younger Eanbald, on his elevation to the archbishopric of York. Alcuin gratefully dwells on the fact that it was he who had been privileged to train such a pupil among " Praise and glory be to the his " sons " at York. Lord God Almighty " he fervently exclaims, " that
Britain to teach.
desire,
—
!
I,
the last of the servants of the Church, was spared
to instruct
among my
sons one
who
should be held
worthy to become a steward of the mysteries of Christ, laboring in my place in the Church wherein I was nursed and instructed, and presiding over the treasures of learning to which my beloved master. Archbishop Albert, left me his heir."* Then, after general counsels, Alcuin enjoins on his pupil, now archbishop of the see to which he himself would in all probability have been elevated had he remained in England, the duty of keeping up the school. He also tells Eanbaid how to conduct it. "Provide masters both for your boys and for the grown-up clerks. Separate into
classes those
who
1
are to study in books, those
are to practise the church music, and those
Ep. 43 Jaffe; 49 Migne.
who who
* Ep. 72 Ja£C€ ; 66 Migne.
76
ALCUIN
Have a
boys
separate
are to engage in transcribing.
master for every
class, that the
may
not run
about in idleness or occupy themselves in silly play
(inanes ludos), or be given over to other follies.
Consider these things most carefully,
son, to the
my
dearest
end that the fountain of all wholesome erudition may still be found flowing in the chief city of our nation."^ It is a strict school that
Alcuin wishes kept.
for the boys
it is
All the play and diversion
was
is
to be
found in their
lessons,
and
his
evidently Alcuin 's old practice as scholasticus
that
is
at
York
is
urged upon Eanbald.
it is
Yet
austerity
there
noteworthy that neither in this letter nor in any of his
not morose, and
writings a recommendation to use flogging or any
of the other punishments which finally became an
But was vanity. Still one can scarcely help thinking that some concession must have been made by Alcuin to the restless and sportive nature of boys in his own playful method of teaching, which verged again and again on jocoseness and pleasant banter. Another and quite
essential part of medieval school discipline.
for all that, the idea of play
different point
worth noticing
is
that the principle
of employing a separate master for each subject and
of dividing the pupils into appropriate classes
practised both at
York and Tours,
is
— though at the
In
was
palace
school
it
doubtful whether any such
sent to Britain.
organization was or could have been effected.
There were other
letters
lEp. 72Jaff€; 66 Migne.
'
ALCUm THE ABBAT OF TOURS
one
lie
77
exhorts ^Edilbert, a bishop in Northumbria,
to " instruct the youth diligently in the knowledge
of books," to keep alive "the light of knowledge" in his diocese, and to bear in mind that " for every
one
who would understand what
to
shun and what
a necessity."
*
to pursue, the study of holy books
is
In 797 he writes to the church and people of Canterbury, then distracted by civil and ecclesiastical dissensions, urging them to remember their former renown as a house not only of religion but of "the glory of philosophic study" as well.* It was apparently from Tours also that he wrote a
general letter of exhortation to the
land, in
monks
of Ire-
which he bears notable testimony to the Irish learning, with which, of course, he was out of sympathy so far as it encouraged speculative tendencies or departed from the Koman tradition.
He
recalls
how
in earlier
times
many
learned
masters had come from Ireland into Britain and
Gaul, and even into Italy, to the great advantage
But now the times are perilous, and therefore it behoves them to teach and learn the truth the more zealously, for many false teachers (jpseudodoctores) have arisen, introducing new and unheard-of opinions, and bent on getting glory for themselves by their novel teachings. " Therefore, most holy fathers, exhort your youth to learn the "However," traditions of the catholic doctors."
of the Church.
tain
The date of this letter is uncei^ Ep. 88 Jaffe 178 Migne. and may be earlier than Alcuin's removal to Tours. 3£p.86Jaff^; 71 Migne.
1
;
78
ALCUIN
he pointedly remarks, " the study of secular letters
Let grammar stand as the is not to be set aside. fundamental study for the tender years of infancy
and the other disciplines of philosophical subtlety be regarded as the several ascents of learning by which scholars may mount to the very summit of Thus with their increase evangelical perfection. there shall come an increase of the riches of years wisdom."^ of His correspondence in Frankland was meanwhile assiduously kept up, and in this way he was able to watch from Tours the course of affairs throughout The interests of the palace school the kingdom. engaged his attention, though he had ceased to be its master, and the condition of education in
general likewise continued to be a matter of constant concern, though Theodulf
his place as soon as he
had virtually taken
to Tours.
removed
His congratulations to Theodulf as the new minister of education, or
"father of the vineyards," as
A-lcuin fancifully styles him, are
is
embodied in what
It defies
probably the most variegated piece of allegorical
scriptural patchwork he ever composed.
adequate reproduction in English, unless accom-
panied with a separate note of explanation for almost every line. However, it is a letter of such
distinct importance as to need presentation at least
in part; for its playful vagaries contain not only
Alcuin's congratulations,
but his injunctions to promote Theodulf to the study of the old seven
1
Ep. 217 Jaff^; 225 Migne.
:
'
ALCUIN THE ABBAT OF TOUBS
liberal arts without
79
any admixture of new notions.
The " vineyards "
of the letter are the educational The " wine cellars " are interests of the kingdom.
the stores of learning in general, and the "old wine " or the " good wine which has been kept until
now "
until
is
the excellent wine of the liberal arts, " kept
to be broached in the age of Charles.
now"
is
This
the true feast of both bread and wine to
which Wisdom or Sapientia invites her followers
in the ninth chapter of Proverbs, as Alcuin explains in another letter, " the true wine which she mingles
for those that are bidden to her table
in the house she hath builded
which is spread on seven pillars." ^
It
With
this preface
we are prepared for a simplified
version of part of Alcuin's letter to Theodulf.
opens as follows " Albinus wisheth health to Theodulf, the great
prelate and father of the vineyards. " read in the Book of Chronicles that in the
We
time of David, the king after God's own heart, Zabdi was set 'over the king's wine-cellars.' ^ Now,
by the mercy of God, a second David is the ruler of a better people, and under him a nobler Zabdi is
set over the cellars
;
for the
king hath set his love
into the wine-cellars,'
upon him and 'brought him
that the
scholars
there wreathe him with him with the flagons * of that 'wine which maketh glad the heart of man.'*
flowers and 'comfort
'
may
lEp. 292Jaffe; 185 Migne.
2 I
* ^
Solomon's Song
ii
6.
Chronicles xxvii 27.
ii
Psalm civ
15.
s
Solomon's Song
4.
'
80
ALCUm
" So then, even
if
there be lacking 'bread which
^
strengtheneth man's heart, '
glad, for our
yet there
is
not lack-
ing in the cellars of Orleans the wine which maketh
hope is in the fruitful vine, and not any withered fig-tree.' Wherefore I, the new Jonathan, 'counsellor of our David and his man of
in
letters,
'
send this letter unto Zabdi, saying
:
Let
us arise early and see
how
fairly the vine flourishes
in 'the valley of Sorek';* let us 'tread out the
wine-press with shouting, '
wine-cellar
*
that the streams of the
"
may
be dispersed abroad. "
Thus
to the
this fanciful
commingling of serious and
playful exhortation in regard to Theodulf's duties
"vineyards" and "wine-presses" of learn-
ing proceeds, changing for a
not, *I cannot
moment
at the close
of the letter into apparent remonstrance,
rise,
"Say
if
and give thee," for even
'
thou hast not 'three loaves
'
*
of bread to lend, yet
by the blessing of Christ there at hand are 'the seven waterpots ' full of the 'good wine which has been kept until now, " and kept, as all know, to be mingled by 'the ruler of the feast ^^ who dwells in Tours. Therefore let the old wine still be kept, in order that no one may put 'new wine into the old
'
'
1
s
Psalm civ 15. Matthew xxi 19.
Chronicles xivii 32.
•
Luke
'
xi 5.
' I
This
is
Jonathan, the uncle of David, * Judges ivi 4.
*
6
^
John ii 6-7. Alcuin mxist have his seven waterpots for the liberal arts, though there
»
'
are only six in Scripture.
i"
Jeremiah xlviii Proverbs v 16.
33.
John
ii
10.
u John ii 9.
Luke
xi 7
'
ALCUIN THE ABBAT OF TOURS
bottles,'^
81
for
'no
man having drank
lie
old wine
straightway desireth new; for
is better.
'
saith:
The old
"
Happy
is
is
he that speaketh to one that hath ears
to hear.
Farewell,
my
dearest brother."*
;
for it is as far removed from the simplicity of style which often shows itself in Alcuin's writing as from the labored It is manner of his more learned discourses. a conscious attempt at an artificial manner of letter-writing, sometimes affected by scholars in that age, and is intended to gather together and display such allegorical hints of Scripture as might bear in favor of promoting the liberal arts; and what could be more convincing as argument than We may be sure that Theodulf had allegory? "ears to hear" and to heed its teachings; for the " paraphrastical " and "paradigmatic" epistolary touches * in which it abounds, and which were so dear to Alcuin, would be fully understood by Theodulf, who might well regard them as highly complimentary to his powers of literary appreciaThe exhortation to prefer the "old wine," tion. which Alcuin had mingled as " ruler of the feast," to any "new wine" that might be offered, was unnecessary in one respect, for TheoduK showed
This
no ordinary
letter
himself a vigorous supporter of the teachings of
his master.
Yet the caution was timely
;
for
new
teachers were appearing at the palace of Charles,
1
«
Luke V 37. Luke V 39.
« *
Ep. 153 Jaffe; 148 Migne. Ep. 177 Jafif€ 191 Migne.
;
82
ALCUIN
introducing strange notions, which were incompatible
with the teachings of Alcuin.
These were
certain Irish scholars
things, a
who
inculcated,
among
other
mode
of calculating Easter different
from
the tradition of Kome, and akin to that followed in
first sight this seems too comment, but the calculation of Easter was one of the questions upon which the East and West were hopelessly divided. Though not a capital question in itself, it was one of great
the eastern Church.
At
slight a matter to arouse
strategic importance as a test of ecclesiastical loyalty.
It
tradition of learning as delivered
Isidore,
had a similar importance in relation to the by Cassiodorus, and Bede, all faithful Latins for with
—
;
their doctrine of Easter the Irish scholars coupled
other teachings, and no doubt brought with the odious book of Martianus Capella,
— and who
them
knows what Greek books they may not likewise have brought with them? It is the irrepressible
conflict of tradition
in.
with speculation that is setting Alcuin wrote again and again to Charles, argu-
ing for the Roman method of calculating Easter and lamenting that such dark "Egyptian" teachings should have drifted in to blind the youth at the palace. Theodulf also wrote a satirical poem, setting forth the utter perverseness and worthlessness of the self-confident
scholar.
'^
Scotellus," or Irish
Charles, however, viewed the situation
to
more cheerfully and sought
debate with the
Scotelli,
draw Alcuin
into
perhaps hoping for no
small enjoyment from witnessing the contest.
But
ALCUm THE ABBAT
mood
OF TOURS
83
Alcuin preferred to stay at Tours.
He was
in
no
to be humiliated at the palace in his old age,
" the
and so he informs the king that
others
aged Entellus
left it for
has long since laid aside the cestus, and
who
are younger."^
"Of what
avail," he
exclaims, " would be the feebleness of your Flaccus
amid the clash
lions?""
Still
of
arms?
What
can the timid hare
do against the wild boars, or the lamb among the
he does not conceal his annoyance
or his surprise that such foolish teachings should
have been given any audience. As for himself, he says, "These silly little questions beset my ears
insects that swarm at the windows in summer,"' and therefore he expresses great surprise that Charles should have listened to them, and
like the
exhorts
him
to
summon
to his side able defenders
of the faith, lest this latest heresy spread to the
distraction of the
Next
after Charles, his chief correspondent
Church and his own kingdom.* was
advise as to the care of all
his beloved friend Arno, archbishop of Salzburg,
whom
he did not
fail to
the parishes in his diocese, insisting that there
establishment of primary wherein the elements should be faithfully taught.* In one letter, he ventures out of his depth into metaphysics, and attempts to explain to Arno the distinction between the terms "substance,"
should be a general
schools,
1
«
Ep. Ep. Ep.
98, p. 408 Jaffe
98, p. 96, p.
;
82 Migne. 82 Migne. 83 Migne.
412 Jaffe
;
«Ep,
«
398Jaff^; 80 Migne.
420 Jaffe
; ;
99, p.
• Ep. 91 JaS^
94 Migne.
84
ALCUm
"essence," "subsistence," and "nature." But he was not a philosopher, and his observations on "essence" are enough to establish this fact.
reference to God, he
"Essence," he says, "is properly spoken of with who always is what he is,
and who said unto Moses, *I am that I am.' Now, God alone truly is, inasmuch as he is unchangeable; for of whatsoever
is
changeable
we cannot
it
say that
it
truly
is
in every respect, because
can
become what it is not, and hence not be what it In still another letter he justifies to Arno is."^ the reading of the classical poets, quoting Jerome
to support him.
After citing Jerome's saying,
is
"Even
is to
the gold which
found on the dunghill
of
be prized and to be deposited in the Lord's
treasury," he adds by
way
comment: "It was
the blessed apostle Paul himself
transferred
ing,
who found
the
gold of wisdom in the dung of the poets, and
it
to the treasury of ecclesiastical learnall the
and so have
holy doctors done,
who were
instructed after his example."'^
It seems strange
after such a letter to find Alcuin's attitude so ascetic
in his last years towards the poet Virgil.' In his boy-
hood he loved
to read Virgil
more than he did the
in respect to
Latin Psalms, and his
own poetry, both
largely
metre and diction,
source.
is
drawn from the same
his pupils that the
Yet he afterwards told
poetry of the Bible was sufficient for them, and
1
«
*
Ep. 209 Jaff^ 161 Migne. Ep. 147 Jaffe 117 Migne. Monumenta Alcuiniana, p.
;
;
6.
ALCUIN THE ABBAT OF TOURS
85
that they should run no risks from the effeminating verses of Virgil.
Once Sigulf had ventured
it
to read
his Virgil secretly, contrary to Alcuin's injunction,
and when Alcuin discovered
he overwhelmed
him with the alarming
gilian!
question, " How
now
!
Vir-
Why
is
it
that against
my
advice,
and
apart from my knowledge, you have desired to read Virgil? " Sigulf cast himself at Alcuin's feet in
abject penitence.
terely,
His master reproved him aus-
but finally forgave him, adding his caution
never to do so any more.^
Even Eigbod, though
archbishop of Treves, did not escape his reproof.
"Has the love of Virgil," he complains, "taken away all remembrance of me? Oh! that my name Then indeed should I be ever before were Virgil
!
your eyes, and you would ponder my words with deep regard. But Flaccus is gone, and Virgil has come. Oh! that the four Gospels and not the twelve iEneads might fill your thoughts " " As for himself, when he sends to Rigbod for books, he begs for very different reading; namely, a Homily
!
of St. Leo and a treatise of the Venerable
Bede on
the
Book
of Tobias.'
Alcuin's seclusion at Tours was broken by a visit from Charles. In the spring of 800* the king had tarried some days at the monastery, in company
1
Monumenta Alcuiniana,
pp. 24, 25.
2Ep. 216 JafEe; 169 Migne. Alcuin's "Aeneods" for "Aeneids" is only too characteristic of the decadent state of
Latin in his time.
»
Ep. 197
Jaffe'; 171
Migne.
103 Migne.
*
Ep. 133, Note
1, Jaffe';
86
ALCUIN
with his Queen Liutgard, whose health was rapidly failing. She died there early in June of the same
year and was buried in
the
adjoining church.
Charles himself returned in the same month to
Aachen by way of Orleans and Paris, accompanied by Alcuin/ who left his monastic retreat for a
short time in order to hold a public dispute with
Felix of Urgel regarding the Adoptionist heresy.
In this
discussion Felix acknowledged
himself
completely vanquished by Alcuin's arguments.
the autumn approached, Charles prepared to Rome. Alcuin had been invited to make the journey with him. But the infirmities of age, which were daily growing upon him, coupled with
As
go to
his instinctive aversion to participating in political
affairs,
except as a peacemaker, kept
him
at Tours.
Charles went to Rome, and on Christmas day was
crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Leo, thus establishing the foundations of There is abunsocial order for the middle ages.
dant evidence for supposing that Charles suspected
the Pope's intentions, though not apprised of the
time or occasion when they were to be carried into effect. It is also quite evident that Alcuin was
aware of the significance of this journey to Rome, and perhaps it is not too much to say that he had secretly advised it, and by his correspondence with Rome was influential in bringing about the coronation. When Charles returned from Rome to Aachen as Emperor, Alcuin made it his first care to send
1
Ep. 147,
p. 658,
Note
1,
JafE€; 117 Migne.
ALCUm THE ABBAT OF TOURS
to
87
the Gospels,
him by a messenger a superbly written copy of made at the monastery in Tours, as
*
the worthiest contribution he could offer to the
"splendor of the imperial power."
As Alcuin's end drew
his affairs,
near, he set in order all
naming
Tours.
his pupil Fridugis as his suc-
cessor
at
A
year or more before his
death he wrote a letter to Charles, bidding him farewell, invoking manifold blessings upon him
for all his goodness, and reminding him of the supreme importance of preparation for death and the day of judgment.'* Other letters written about the same time show how wholly his mind was engrossed with the thought of his coming departure. The opening of the year 804 found him greatly weakened in health. A fever soon set in, under which his remaining strength gradually It was his desire that he might ebbed away. linger until the day of Pentecost should come. And so it happened; for Alcuin died at dawn of that May morning,' just after matins had been
sung.
He was
carried to his burial in the church of St.
Martin, near the monastery, with every manifestaplace for his repose.
It was a fitting Notwithstanding his cherished hope that it might be his lot to die and be buried at York, his works which followed him
tion of reverence and affection.
1
3
Ep. 205 Jaffe; 131 Migne. Ep. 193 Jaff^ 134 Migne.
;
«
May 19,
80*.
88
ALCUm
were chiefly his labors in Frankland, and in Frankland Tours was the scene of his last, and in some ways his greatest service. It was also a spot where other appropriate memories clustered. There St. Martin had come as a founder of monasticism among the Gauls. There Charles Martel had delivered the Frank from the Moslem. Thither Charles the Great had journeyed to take counsel with Alcuin before he went to Rome, to return as monarch of the Holy Roman Empire. There his best beloved queen, Liutgard, the devoted friend of Alcuin, had died and was buried; and there, too, if the tradition be true, Alcuin pointed out to Charles the young prince Lewis as his successor. And yet, when the news of his death was borne to distant York, and the brethren there were chanting prayers for his repose, they might easily believe his longing desire that his soul might rest among them, wherever his body lay, was then being fulfilled.
CHAPTER V
T^E EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUm
Alcuin's writings have been preserved to us in and may be classified under fourfold division. First come his theological a works, which embrace the greater part, perhaps two-thirds, of all that he wrote. This theological
tolerable completeness,
portion
may
in turn be divided into four parts,
and practical, and Of the remaining third of his writings, the major part is embraced in his epistles, and least in extent are the didactic treatises and poems which make up the rest.
exegetical, dogmatic, liturgical
lives of the saints.
It will thus
Alcuin's writings have
be seen that the greater part of little connection with the
history of education, and yet, even his theological
works have incidental interest in this respect.
Besides a few scanty gleanings from his exegetical
writings, there are
On
the Virtues
and
Vices
two of his practical treatises, and On the Nature of the
which have a general connection with edubut beyond this there is nothing to be found. The epistles are of high value for the general history of the times, and more particularly for the abundant light which they shed upon the
Soul,
cation,
activity of Alcuin in his relation to the restoration
89
go
ALCUIN
The poems have a lesser value, of school-learning. but contain important help for the history of the
school at York, where Alcuin was bred, and for his
later career in Frankland.
But the chief
interest
centres in his specifically didactic writings, for
they contain most fully his general views on education as well as separate treatises on some of the
liberal arts.
Let
it
be remarked at the outset that Alcuin
is
rarely an original writer, but usually a compiler
adapter,
and
and even at times a
literal transcriber of
other men's work.
learning, either
He
adds nothing to the sum of
does
is
by invention or by recovery of what
has been
lost.
What he
to reproduce or
adapt from earlier authors such parts of their writings as could be appreciated by the age in which
he
all
lived.
Accordingly, while he must be refused
the credit that belongs to a courageous
mind
which advances beyond what has been known, he must yet be highly esteemed for the invaluable service he rendered as a transmitter and conserver of the learning that was in danger of perishing, and as the restorer and propagator of this learning in a great empire, after it had been extinct for generations. A passage from the letter dedicating his commentary on the Gospel of John to Gisela and Rotrud,
states so aptly the timorously conservative attitude
which appears in
writes:
all his literary efforts,
it
is
educational
or otherwise, that
worth citing here.
He
store-
"I have reverently traversed the
houses of the early fathers, and whatever I have
THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUIN
been able to find there, I have sent of
taste.
it
91
for
you to
have sought help from St. Augustine, who has devoted the greatest study to expounding the most holy words of this holy gospel. Next, I have drawn somewhat from the lesser works
First of
all,
I
of St. Ambrose, that most holy doctor, and like-
wise from the Homilies of the distinguished father,
Gregory the Great.
I
have also taken much from
the Homilies of the blessed presbyter Bede, and
from other holy fathers, whose, interpretations I have here set forth. For I have preferred to employ their thoughts and words rather than to venture anything of my own audacity, even if the curiosity of my readers were to approve of it, and by a most cautious manner of writing I have made it my care, with the help of God, not to set down anything contrary to the thoughts of the fathers." Fortunately for his theological works, he depends mainly on the really great fathers of the Latin Church. Most of what he writes comes from Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose and Gregory the Great, while Bede is the chief of his later authorities. Of the Greek fathers, however, he knows nothing, except through Latin versions, and of these he makes no considerable use beyond drawing on a translation of Chrysostom to help in composing his commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. His literary sources are all Latin, nor is there any Greek to be found in what he wrote, apart from some citations copied from Jerome and occasional Greek words from elsewhere. On the educational
92
ALCUIN
side he depends mainly on Isidore and Bede, but with subsidiary help from Cassiodorus and the treatise
On
the Categories falsely ascribed to
Augustine.
He knew
of him.
tioned.
made only indirect use Martianus Capella is not so much as menof Boethius, but
The separate educational treatises of Alcuin of undoubtedly genuine character are the following:
On Chrammar, On Orthography, On Rhetoric and the Virtues, On Dialectics, a Disputation with Pepin, and a tedious astronomical treatise, entitled De Cursu et
Saltu LuncB ac Bissexto.
to
him with
less certainty
Three others are ascribed On the Seven Arts,
:
A
Disputation for Boys, and the so-called Propositions
of Alcuin.
and most important of these is his dramfalls into two parts, the one a dialogue between Alcuin and his pupils on philosophy and liberal studies in general, and the other a dialogue between a young Saxon and a Frank on grammar, also conducted in the presence of Alcuin. The former dialogue is an original composition and contains in brief compass Alcuin's views on the end and method of education, and on the duty of studying the liberal arts, to which the entire
First
mar, which
dialogue serves as a general introduction.
"Most
learned master," says one of the disciples, opening
the dialogue,
"we have often heard you say that Philosophy was the mistress of all the virtues, and alone of all earthly riches never made its
possessor miserable.
We
confess that
you have
THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUIN
incited us
93
by such words to follow after this exceland we desire to know what is the sum of its supremacy and by what steps we may make ascent thereunto. Our age is yet a tender one and too weak to rise unhelped by your hand. We know, indeed, that the strength of the mind is
lent felicity,
in the heart, as the strength of the eyes
is
in the
head.
Now
our eyes, whenever they are flooded
sun, or
by the splendor of the presence of any light,
are able to discern
by reason of the most
clearly whatever is presented to their gaze,
but without this access of light they must remain in
darkness.
So also the mind
there be any one
is
able to receive
wisdom
if
who
will enlighten it."
Alcuin benignantly replies, " My sons, ye have said well in comparing the eyes to the mind, and may
the light that lighteneth every
that ye
man
that cometh
into this world enlighten your minds, to the
end
its
may
be able to
make
progress in philoso-
phy, which, as ye have well said, never deserts
possessor."
and then renew their entreaty in the same figurative and
disciples assent to this
The
flowery manner.
"Verily,
Master," they urge,
of
"we know
liberally
that
we must ask
not.
Him who
giveth
Yet we likewise need to be instructed slowly, with many a pause and hesitation, and like the weak and feeble to be led by slow steps until our strength shall grow. The flint naturally contains in itself the fire that will come forth when the flint is struck. Even so there is in the human mind the light of knowledge
and upbraideth
94
ALCniN
flint,
that will remain hidden like the spark in the
unless
it
be brought forth by the repeated efforts
of a teacher."
to point out to
Alcuin answers
:
" It
is
easy indeed
if
you the path of wisdom,
only ye
for
love
it
for the sake of God,
for knowledge,
purity of heart, for understanding the truth, yea,
and for
itself.
Seek
it
not to gain the praise of
men
or the honors of this world, nor yet for the
deceitful pleasures of riches, for the
more these
things are loved, so
those
much
the farther do they cause
who
seek them to depart from the light of
truth and knowledge."
After this elaborately courteous opening the dialogue proceeds to show that true and eternal happiness,
and not transitory pleasure,
is
the proper end
for a rational being to set before him,
and that
this
happiness consists in the things that are proper and
alien to
itself, rather than in what is "That," says Alcuin, "which is sought from without is alien to the soul, as is the gather-
peculiar to the soul
it.
ing together of riches, but that which the soul
is
is
proper to
what
is
within, namely, the graces of
wisdom.
Therefore,
man," he
calls
out in fervid
apostrophe, "if thou art master of thyself, thou
shalt have
losing,
what thou shalt never have to grieve at and what no calamity shall be able to take
away.
for that
is it to
Why then, O
mortals, do ye seek without
which ye have within?
How much
!
better
be adorned within than without "
naturally
inquire,
"
What,
then, are the adornments of the soul?" the disciples
and Alcuin answers:
THE EDUCATIONAL WEITINGS OF ALCUIN
" Wisdom
is
95
the chief adornment, and this I urge
you
to seek above all things."
nal because
Alcuin then explains that wisdom is itself eterit is an inseparable property of the soul, which is immortal, and in this differs from
everything else of a secular character.
is
But its The scholar will not gain his reward without study, any more than the soldie?
pursuit
laborious.
without fighting or the farmer without plowing. It is an old proverb that the root of learning is bitter but the fruit is sweet, and so St. Paul asserts
that " every discipline at the present
is
not joyous
but grievous, yet afterwards
able fruit of righteousness to
cised in it."
it
yieldeth the peace-
them that were exeris
Progress in secular knowledge
ascents, step
to be
and is to lead to " the better ways of wisdom, which conduct to "May the divine grace guide and life eternal."
made by slow
by
step,
lead us," exclaims Alcuin, "into the treasures of
spiritual
wisdom, that ye
;
may be
intoxicated at the
fountain of divine plenty
that there
may
be within
you a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. But, inasmuch as the Apostle enjoins that everything be done decently and in order, I think that ye should be led by the steps of erudition from lower to higher things until your wings gradually grow stronger, so that ye may mount on them to view the loftier visions of the pure ether." The disciples are overwhelmed and humbly answer: "Master, raise us from the earth by your hand aud set our feet upon the ascents of wisdom."
96
ALCTHN
Alcuin accordingly proceeds to set before his pupils the seven ascents of the liberal arts in the following manner: "We have read how Wisdom herself saith by the mouth of Solomon, Wisdom
'
hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars.' Now although this saying pertains to the Divine
Wisdom which builded for Himself a house (that is, the body of Christ in the Virgin's womb), and endued it with the
seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, or
Church, which
these gifts, yet
pillars
is
may mean
the
the House of
is
God
it
that shines with
Wisdom
also built
upon the seven
of liberal letters, and
can in no wise
any perfect knowledge, unless it Here is a distinct advance on Alcuin 's part beyond the Augustine had earlier writers on the liberal arts. regarded them with qualified approval because they were helpful towards understanding divine truth. Cassiodorus saw in addition a mystical hint of their excellence in the fact that they were seven, and fortified his position by the text, "Wisdom hath
afford us access to
be set upon these seven pillars, or ascents."
hewn out her seven Alcuin takes up the text from Proverbs quoted by Cassiodorus, and finds in it the liberal arts as a matter of direct interpretation. Sapientia, or Wisdom, who had builded her house and hewn
builded her house, she hath
columns."
out her seven
pillars,
he mystically explains
first
of
Christ the Divine
Wisdom and next
of the Church,
each endued with the seven gifts of the Spirit, and
then proceeds to his third application, which
is
that
THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUIN
97
Sapientia, or Wisdom, which in the speech of his time often meant learning, was built upon the seven liberal arts. Augustine found the arts out-
side of Scripture, but
deemed them helpful towards
understanding
gets
it.
Cassiodorus found in Scripture
It needs not to
a mystical hint as to their excellence, and Alcuin
them out of Scripture
itself.
be told
arts
how influential such an
interpretation
would
if
be on the fortunes of secular learning; for
the
were once found in the Scriptures, there was no way of getting them out of the Church. Henceforth the prescriptive utterances
of
Tertullian,
though echoed once and again down the middle ages,^ could never dominate the Church.
But
let
us return to the dialogue.
us,
renew their request: "Open to
often promised,
discipline."
as
The pupils you have
the seven ascents of theoretical Alcuin replies: "Here, then, are the ascents of which ye are in search, and that ye
may
ever be as eager to ascend them as ye
now
are
dia-
to see them.
They
are grammar,
rhetoric,
lectics, arithmetic,
geometry, music, and astrology.
On
these the philosophers bestowed their leisure
and their study." Then he adds with a boldness which might well have alarmed him: "By reason of these philosophers the catholic teachers and
defenders of our faith have proved themselves
1
As
late as the thirteenth century
we
read in a regulation of
the Dominican order:
studeat, et si
teat,
"In
libris
gentilium philosopkorum non
ad horam
suscipiat saeculares scientias,
non addi'
nee arte* quaa liberalea vocant."
"
96
ALCUIN
superior to all the chief heretics in public contro-
versy," and closes with the exhortation: "Let your
youthful steps,
shall bring
my
dearest sons, run daily along
these paths until a riper age and a stronger
mind
you
to the heights of
Holy
Scripture.
Plainly in Alcuin's mind the arts were seven and only seven. They are the necessary ascents to the higher wisdom of the Scriptures. Not the
fact that they are simply useful to the Scriptures,
but indispensable,
in Alcuin's eyes.
is
Much
is
what gives them such value of the rhetoric in which
childish enough, but
it all it is
his ideas exfoliate
impossible not to see behind
spirit,
a pure and gentle
of learning he
who valued
the scanty
sum
possessed for no lesser reasons than the love of
God, purity of soul, knowledge of truth, and even
for its
own
sake, as against
any pursuit of learn-
ing for the vulgar ends of wealth, popularity or
secular honor.
The second dialogue
grammatical.
in the treatise is properly
Two
of Alcuin's pupils, a
Saxon
lately
and a Frank, are beginners
it
in the study, or, to put
in Alcuin's flowery language, "
They but
rushed upon the thorny thickets of grammatical
The Frank is a boy of fourteen years and the Saxon of fifteen. The master presides over their interrogations and answers. It is decided that grammar must begin with the consideration of what a letter is, though Alcuin stops on the way to expound the nature of words. It is defined as " the least part of an articulate sound, " The letters
density."
:
THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUIN
99
are the " elements " of language because they are
ultimate and indivisible, and are built up
syllables,
first
into
and thereafter successively into words, Letters are of two sorts, clauses, and sentences. vowels and consonants, and are defined as follows "The vowels are uttered by themselves and of
themselves make syllables.
selves
The consonants
can-
not be uttered by themselves, nor can they of them-
make
syllables."
But
this sapient definition
though accepted by the pupils, does not contain all that is to be said. There is an occult reason why the alphabet is divided into vowels and consonants, as Alcuin at once informs them. " The vowels," he says, "are, as it were, the souls, and the consonants, the bodies of words." "Now the soul moves both itself and the body, but the body Such, then, are is immovable apart from the soul. the consonants without the vowels. They may indeed be written by themselves, but they can neither be uttered nor have any power apart froin vowels." This explanation seems to satisfy them, for they pursue the matter no further. The peculiarities of the consonants are then discussed very much in the same manner, and the syllable is next taken up. It is defined as " a sound expressed in letters (vox litteralis), which has been uttered with one accent and at one breath." The discussion of sylla-
by
antithesis,
bles falls into four parts, accent (accentus), breath-
ings (spiritus), quantity (tempus), and the
number of
constituent letters.
After these are discussed, the
pupils entreat that before proceeding further they
100
ALCum
be furnished with a definition of grammar.
tells
may
Alcuin accordingly
them that
"
Grammar
is
the
science of written sounds
(litteralis
scientia),
the
guardian of correct speaking and writing.
It is
founded on nature, reason, authority, and custom." It has been well observed that this shrunken notion
of Alcuin as contrasted wide conception of the study that prewith the vailed among the grammarians of the later Roman
of
grammar on the part
Empire
is
thoroughly characteristic of the intellecInstead of being
tual feebleness of the later time.
both the art of writing and speaking, and also the
study of the great poets and orators,
it
has
now
become only the former of these, a childish, techniThis appears more plainly cal and barren study.
as
we advance
of the parts of grammar.
syllables,
feet,
to Alcuin 's alarming enumeration They are " words, letters,
clauses,
sayings,
speeches,
definitions,
accents, punctuation marks, critical marks,
orthographies,
analogies,
etymologies,
glosses,
distinctions, barbarisms, solecisms, faults, meta-
plasms, figurations, tropes, prose, metres, fables,
and histories." Words, letters and
discussed,
syllables, the first three of
Alcuin's twenty-six parts of grammar, have been
and each of the others
is
next defined.
Alcuin then proceeds to the consideration of the
different parts of speech in the following order:
the noun,
bers
its
genders,
its
numbers,
" figures "
and
cases; the pronoun,
genders, "figures,"
its
num-
and cases} then the verb with
modes,
THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUIN
^
101
"figures," inflections and numbers; and t'he adverb'
with
its
"figures."
Lastly he treats of the par-
ticiple,
the conjunction, the preposition and the
interjection.
By
" figures " Alcuin
means the
facts
relating to the simplicity, composition or deriva-
tion of words.
verbs, the
is
Thus,
is
under his
"figures"
of
word cupio
in simple figure, concupio
is
in composite figure, and concupisco
figure,
in deri-
vative
because
it
comes from concupio.
parts of speech
is
The whole treatment
of the
similarly feeble in spirit and almost entirely restricted to etymology, so that Alcuin's
is really
Grammar
in his
devoid of orthography, syntax and prosis
ody.
Whatever
excellent in any
way
Grammar ought
Alcuin follows.
to be credited to Donatus,
whom
Isidore also furnishes
him many
a
definition,
but wherever this happens the treabe childish.
tise is apt to
suffice.
An
example or two may
is
The derivation of
"because the
littera
said to be
from
so
legitera,
littera
prepares a path
for readers (leg entibus iter)."
Feet in poetry are
named
so on.
walk on them, " and Yet his book had great fame, and Notker,
it,
" because the metres
writing a century later, praised
chus,
saying, " Alcuin
has made such a grammar that Donatua, NicomaDositheus and our
own
Priscian seem as
nothing when compared with him."
In the manuscript copies of the Grammar there
appear to be some slight parts missing at the end, so that it may have been more extended than we
suppose J but there
is
no ground for thinking
it
102
ALCUIN
covered more than etymology.
next work
However, Alcuin's on orthography, and is properly a pendant to his Chammar. It is a short manual
is
list
containing a
of words, alphabetically arranged,
with comments on their proper spelling, pronunciation and meanings, and with remarks on their correct use, drawn to some extent from a treatise by Bede on the same subject. It is a sort of Antibarbarus, a help towards securing accuracy of form and propriety of use in the employment of Latin words, and must have been serviceable in the instruction of youth, but more so in the copying of ancient manuscripts.
believe
We may
reasonably
that
Alcuin's scribes in the
monastery
of Tours, busily engaged in recovering one and
another patristic and classical writer, were guided
his book in the purification of the copies they made, and for which the monastery at Tours became so famous. "Let him who would publish the sayings of the ancients read me, for he who follows me not will speak without regard to
by
law,"^
is
the translation of the couplet which
stands at the head of the Orthography and indiIt is Alcuin's attempt to purge contemporary Latin of its barbarisms. He puts "Write vinea" he his comments oddly enough. says, "if you mean a vine, with i in the first
cates its purpose.
syllable
and
e in
the second.
But
if
pardon, write venia with e in the
1
first syllable
you mean and
Me legat antiquas vult qui proferre loqaelas. Me qui nou sequitur, yult sine lege loqui.
THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUIN
i
103
Write vacca with a v, if you mean with a 6 if you mean a berry." In the same way be careful to write vellus with a V to mean wool, and bellus, if you mean fair. Similarly, when writing, do not confuse vel with fel which means gall, or with Bel, the heathen god. By no means consider henificus, a man of good deeds, So bibo and vivo the same as venificus, a poisoner. Such examples indicate that are not to be mixed. Alcuin had to struggle against " rusticity " in pronunciation as well as in writing, a rusticity which was due to the modifying influence of the barbarous Tudesque upon the pronouncing of Latin, an influence which, even in Alcuin 's time, was altering the forms of words in a manner which presaged
in the second.
a cow, but write
it
—
—
the final demolition of Latin prior to the rise of
French.
Some
lebs,
of the definitions are quite amusing.
is
Coe-
a bachelor,
defined as "one
who
is
on his
way ad
caelum," evidently the true
monk.
is
"Write
it is
oequor with a diphthong," for the reason that
derived from aqua.
Malus, a mast,
to
have a
long
a,
but " a mdlus homo ought to have a short a."
It is
cuin' s didactic
so, for
on the Grammar and Orthography that Alfame principally rests, and justly
in spite of their puerile character they did
more good service than anything else he wrote. Let it be remembered that the tall, blue-eyed barbarians, whom Alcuin was aiming to civilize, were but little children when it came to school-learning. Let it also be remembered that Alcuin, divesting himself
104
ALCUIN
humbly
and the
of all vanity and conceit, wisely and even
set before
them what they could
had
learn,
start.
only thing they could learn at the
his master, Charles,
Even
bend
to toil painfully to
his fingers, stiffened with long use of the sword, to
the clerkly task of writing, and confessed that he
acquired the art with great difficulty.
The dialogue On Rhetoric and the Virtues has two interlocutors Charles and Alcuin, and was composed in response to a request from the king. Alcuin instructs him in the elements of
for its
the rhetorical art with special reference to
its
applications in the conduct and settlement of dis-
putes in civil
affairs,
and
closes
with a short de-
scription of the four cardinal virtues,
justice,
— prudence,
and temperance. It is, therefore, not strictly a book on rhetoric, but rather on It is based on rhetorical writits applications. ings of Cicero, which are rehandled by Alcuin, and always with loss and injury to his originals. The hand of Isidore is likewise visible in places, and contributes to the general deterioration. If the Grammar was rudimentary and ill-arranged, the Rhetoric suffers yet more from its miscellaneous presentation of ill-digested bits of rhetoric, and from its greater dulness of style. Moreover, it is less jocose in spirit than are parts of the Grammar, though Alcuin's specimen of sophistical reasoning, which he produces for the instruction of the king,
fortitude
is
indeed comical.
" What art thou? " asks Alcuin,
and after Charles answers, "I am a man (homo)," the dialogue goes on as follows
:
—
THE EDUCATIONAL WKITINGS OF ALCUIN
''
106
Alcuin.
See
how thou
so?
hast shut
me
in.
Charles.
How
Alcuin.
thou,
If thou sayest I
am
not the same as
and that I
am
a man,
it
follows that thou art
not a man.
Charles.
It does.
But how many syllables has homo9 Charles. Two. Alcuin. Then art thou those two syllables?
Alcuin.
Charles.
Surely not; but
why
dost thou reason
thus?
Alcuin.
craft
That thou mayest understand sophistical
and see how thou canst be forced to a conI see and understand from
clusion.
Charles.
what was
that
granted at the start, both that I
am homo and
and that I can be shut up conclusion that I am these two syllables. the to But I wonder at the subtlety with which thou hast
homo has two
syllables,
led me on, first to conclude that thou wert not a man, and afterward of myself, that I was two
syllables."
After the Rhetoric comes the Dialectics, which
in part extracted or abridged
is
from Isidore, who in his turn had taken from Boethius, and in part copied almost solidly from the supposed work of Augustine on the Categories of Aristotle. If possible, it is less original than the Rhetoric, but is an attempt to at least what its title indicates, say something about dialectics. However, as the age of medieval logic had not yet begun in earnest,
—
106
ALCUIN
Alcuin's treatise was perhaps as
much
as the times
would
bear,
especially in view of the existing
Church to the In conjunction with the Chammar and Rhetoric, it may be taken as constituting such instruction in the trivium as was given
indifference or antagonism in the
subtleties of Aristotle.
in the palace school.
Interesting in its
way
as a specimen of Alcuin's
teaching
is
his dialogue written for Pepin, then a years,
young prince of sixteen
and entitled The
Disputation of Pepin, the Most Noble and Royal It rainbles Youth, with Alhinus the Scholastic.
without plan and allegorizes without restraint.
Parts of
it
run as follows
:
—
"Pepin.
Alhinus.
What What What What
is
is
writing?
of history.
The guardian
Pepin.
Alhinus.
language?
of the soul.
The betrayer The tongue.
is
Pepin.
generates language?
the tongue?
of the air.
AlMnus.
Pepin.
AJbinu^.
The whip
is
Pepin.
What
What
air?
life.
Alhinus.
The guardian of
is life?
Pepin.
Alhinus.
of death.
The joy
is
of the happy; the expectation
Pepin.
Alhinus.
What
death?
An
inevitable event; an uncertain jour-
ney; tears for the living; the probation of wills;
the stealer of men.
THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUIN
Pepin.
Alhinus.
107
What
The
is
man?
slave of death j a passing traveler;
a stranger in his place.
Pepin.
What
is
man
like?
Alhinus.
An
apple."
Let us understand this short and sudden definiAlcuin means that man hangs like an apple on a tree without being able to know when he is to
tion.
fall.
The questions on natural phenomena are not
instructive " Pepin.
:
—
less
What
is
water?
a cleanser of
filth.
Alhinus.
A supporter of life;
is fire?
Pepin. things
What
Alhinus.
;
Excessive heat; the nurse of growing
cold?
the ripener of crops.
Pepin.
What
The
is
Alhinus.
febricity of our members.*
is
Pepin.
Alhinus.
tion
What
frost?
The persecutor of plants; the destrucof leaves; the bond of the earth; the source of
waters.
Pepin.
Alhinus.
What
Dry
is
snow?
the winter?
water.
is
Pepin.
What
The
Alhinus.
exile of
is
summer.
Pepin.
Alhinus.
What
The
the spring?
the
painter of the earth.
is
Pepin.
What
1
autumn?
Alhinus.
The bam
of the year."
is
This " cold "
apparently a chilL
108
ALCUIN
sort,
After more of this same
the dialogue rapidly
runs into puzzles and then closes.
The
treatise
De Cursu
et
Saltu Lunce ac Bissezto
needs no special notice.
It deals
with the method
special
is is
of calculating the changes of the
moon with
reference to the determination of Easter, and
compiled for the instruction of the king.
the principal authority.
Bede
There remain for consideration the three works
first is entitled
The to Alcuin. On the Seven Arts, and is a fragment derived from the work of Cassiodorus on the same subject. But only the first two parts, grammar and
somewhat doubtfully attributed
and they are in part copied and in part abridged from their original. Alcuin may have taken them after his manner from Cassiodorus, without any thought of laying claim to the production as his own. But whether he did this or not, the fragment is useful in that it shows that the book of Cassiodorus On the Arts and Disciplines of Liberal Letters was consulted in the time of Alcuin. The so-called Disputation of the Boys is likewise doubtful. It is a set of questions and answers on Scriptural subjects and may at least serve as another example of the catechetical method of that time. Much more interesting is the set of puzzles
rhetoric, are described,
entitled TTie Propositions of Alcuin, the Teacher of
the
Emperor Charles
of Youth.
copied.
the Great, for Whetting the Wit Unfortunately, the Venerable Bede had
is
written just such a treatise, which
here closely
But
this
need not weigh against the proba-
THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUIN
bility of Alcuin's taking
109
and using it. But whetlier he did really do so, or whether copyists attributed it to him, is a matter of little moment, for it well
represents the character of the teaching of the time.
It
is,
in fact, not unlikely that these are the prop-
which Alcuin enclosed in a letter to Charles and styled " certain figures of arithmetical
ositions
subtlety sent for the sake of amusement."
Charles
with Alcuin "through the plains of arithmetical art," and Alcuin speaks in one of his poems of " studying the
himself
refers
to
his
excursions
fair
positiones consist in the
cises, all
forms of numbers" with Charles. The promain of very simple exersolved by painfully rudimentary methods.
of
Not one
mula.
them
exhibits an
apprehension on
idea or for-
Alcuin's part of any mathematical
Forty-five of the fifty-three propositions
may, by courtesy, be styled exercises in reckoning. Each one is twofold in its structure, containing the propositio and its attached solutio. They are put in the style of a master towards his pupils, the proposition generally culminating in some such formula as "let him solve this who can" (solvat
qui potest), or, " let
him
that understandeth say
how
able
we must
answer."
divide," or simply, "let
him who
is
The
propositions themselves are various,
all
but are confined to a few kinds of questions,
in concrete form
sionally there is
put
and sometimes jocosely. Occano regard paid to the probability
of the state of things pictured in the proposition.
Thus a king
is
represented as gathering an army
110
ALCUIN
one
in geometrical progression,
man
in the first
town, two in the second, four in the third, eight in the fourth, and so on through thirty towns.
total
is
The
Of
1,073,741,823
soldiers,
an army whose
pupil.
number might well amuse the imperial
course Alcuin
is
entirely ignorant in this problem of
any formula for the sum of a geometrical progression, and so he proceeds to count it all out. The
solutions are alarmingly infantile in their methods.
Roman, and this adds enormously to the slowness of working the examples. The only processes employed are the simplest operations of addition, multiplication, and division, commonly neglecting all " remainders " in division, and there is rarely any use of subtraction. Common fractions
are of a very elementary sort are at times used, but no
fractional symbols are employed.
The numerals
They
are spoken
of as "the half," "the half of the half," "the third
part," "the sixth part,"
and "the eleventh part."
They
are not treated as fractions, but as divisors.
" Aliquot parts "
frequently figure in construct-
ing the
puzzles,
and there are some examples
of
triangles,
of finding areas
always
isosceles,
and
of quadrangular and
is
"round"
figures.
His
forty-second proposition
unique, in being clever.
There is a ladder with one hundred steps. One dove is on the first step, two on the second, three on the third, and so on. How many doves are on the ladder? On the first and ninety-ninth steps there are accordingly one hundred doves, and so on the second and ninety-eighth steps. Proceeding thus
THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUIN
111
through the pairs of steps, we find forty-nine pairs of steps, each containing one hundred doves, with
the fiftieth and hundredth steps omitted, which
last contain jointly
one hundred and
fifty doves.
fifty.
The
total is accordingly five
thousand and
In this example Alcuin unconsciously goes through the process which underlies arithmetical progression.
Some
of the propositions are properly alge-
braical,
involving
the
simple equation
in
one
unknown quantity, but of course he is not aware of this and works them out mechanically. Not only are the methods of solution employed
so crude, but no principle of arithmetic ever seems
to
dawn upon
his mind.
is
Cumbrous manipulation
his only accomplishment.
is
of particular problems
The
crete
character of most of the problems solved
depressing to think about.
and meant to be witty.
Of course they are conThey are " ad acuendos
it is
juvenes."
They
are "figures of arithmetical subt-
lety" meant to whet the wit of youth, but
pigs, as one
surely startling to read of a sty that holds 262,304
structed,
;
which some unknown quidam has consow and a litter of seven and all this invented to get an example in multiplication. Other examples are equally silly without being funny. Quadrangular houses are to
—
starting with one
be put into a triangular city so as to
fill
the triangle
completely, or into a "round" city with a similar
result,
the answers being worked out in entire
impossibility in-
unconsciousness of the logical
volved.
Leaving the semi-arithmetical exercises^
"
112
ALCUIN
variety of trivial puzzles remaining.
lias
we have a
After an ox
plowed
all
day,
how many
steps
is,
does he take in the last furrow?
The answer
first
"none, because the last furrow covers his tracks."
This would serve as well for the
for all furrows.
or for
any or
When
a farmer goes plowing,
and has turned thrice at each end of his field, how many furrows has he drawn? Alcuin says six, but the Venerable Bede said seven, and the Venerable Bede was right, if only the farmer starts in his first furrow on a straight line from one end of the In another propfield and finishes his last furrow. osition Alcuin requests that three hundred pigs be killed in three batches on successive days, an odd number to be killed each day. But as three odd numbers cannot add up an even sum, he has an impregnably insoluble proposition. " Eccefabula I he cries in glee, "here's a go! There is no solution.
This fable
is
only to provoke boys."
in
He
only
adds a scholium at the end to the effect that the
proposition will
work
the same
way
if
thirty pigs are taken.
Let not Alcuin' s treatises be judged apart from
the environment of his times.
intellect
The
age,
whose
he addressed, thought as a child and spake
and to have presented anything else was what it could not understand. It was to invite certain failure in any attempt made in behalf of learning. It was a necessary first stage in the evolution of modern European onlture that some one should at some time teach the rudiments to
as a child, to present
THE EDUCATIONAL WKITINGS OF ALCUIN
113
barbarous western Europe, and that Alcuin did this
and recognized the limitations under which learning would be received, is not so much a proof of mediocrity as of his sagacity. He was not a writer
of genius, nor of originality, nor of vast learning,
but he was a
man
of great practical sense. didactic writings furnish
Nor should his properly
the basis for a judgment as to the educational attain-
ments of their author, except as exhibiting the substance of his formal instruction.
If this is all
we
have, then the best that can be said for his
is
teaching
ancients,
that he gave western Europe imper-
fectly understood fragments of the
wisdom
of the
and is more significant from the fact that he makes plain the intellectual darkness of the time than that he is introducing a learning
that relieves
it.
Happily, there
is
another side
which appears in many of his letters. They give us many a glimpse of his utter unselfishness, his purity and gentleness,
to his educational activity
his fidelity to the spiritual welfare of his pupils,
and his never-ceasing personal anxiety that their lives and minds should be moulded by the spirit of Christ. Here is the true Alcuin, not the reviver of a decayed and fragmentary school learning,
but the inspirer of Christian
studies and conduct, in an age
ideals,
both as to
when both seemed
to be disappearing from the face of Europe.
Alcuin's eye followed his pupils in their later
life
Stretched to
and his hand of support or restraint was outthem again and again. When one of
114
ALCUIN
them,
who was fond of high
living
and the company
of actors, was going to Italy, he cautioned
him soberly
not only as to the care of his health in that climate,
but as to his general conduct.
"My
dearest son,"
he writes, "great
is
my
longing for your health
and prosperity.
you a spoken words of paternal affection, beseeching you to keep God before your eyes and in your remembrance with
I therefore desire to send
letter of exhortation in place of the
mind and virtuous intention. Let Christ be On your lips and in your heart. Act not childishly and follow not boyish whims, but be perfect in all uprightness and continence and moderation, that God may be glorified by your works, and that the father who bore you may not be made Be temperate in food and drink, reashamed. garding rather your own welfare than any carnal delight or the vain praise of men, which profiteth not if your acts be displeasing to God. It is better to please God than to please actors, to look Let after the poor than to go after buffoons. your feastings be decorous, and those who feast with you be religious. Be old in morals, though Another letter written from young in years." Tours in Alcuin's old age to the young princes still
entire devotion of
at the palace,
when
:
Charles, their father,
was away
in Italy, is both tender It
and playful in
its affection.
reads in part
"
To
my
dearest sons in Christ
I
their father wisheth eternal welfare.
would write
you a great deal that would carry
if
only I had a dove or a raven
letter
my
on
its
faithful pinions.
THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUIN
Nevertheless, I have given this
little
115
sheet to the
winds, that
it
may come
blast.
to
you by some favoring
breeze, unless, perchance, the gentle zephyr change
But arise, south or north away this little parchment to bid you greeting and to announce our prosperity, and our great desire to see you well and whole,
to
an eastern
or any wind! and bear
even as the father desires his sons to be.
Oh,
how
happy was that day when amid our labors we played at the sports of letters! But now all is changed. The old man has been left to beget other sons, and weeps for his former children that are gone." In his little book, On The Virtues and Vices, sent to Count Wido for his moral instruction, he commends to him the reading of the Scriptures in words of quiet serenity and deep spirituality. "In the reading of the Holy Scriptures," he writes, "lies the knowledge of true blessedness, for therein, as in a mirror, man may consider himself, what he is and whither he goes. He who would be always with God ought frequently to pray and frequently
to read, for
when we pray we are speaking with God, and when we read God is speaking to us."
More than one letter of Alcuin's to wayward pupils has come to us. To one of them he writes in the
following
manner:
"A
mourning father sends
greeting to his prodigal son.
Why
hast thou forfash-
gotten thy father
who taught
thee from infancy,
disciplines,
imbued thee with the ioned thy morals, and
precepts of eternal
life,
liberal
fortified
them with the
com-
to join thyself to the
"
116
ALCUIN
harlots, to the feastings of revellers, to the
pany of
that
vanities of the proud?
Art not thou that youth was once a praise in the mouth of all, a delight to their eyes, and a pleasure to their ears? Alas! alas now art thou a reproach in the mouth of all, the curse of their eyes and the detestation of their
!
ears.
What
has so overturned thee but drunken-
ness and luxury?
Who,
gracious boy, thou son
and light of the Church, has persuaded thee to feed the swine and to eat of their husks? Arise, my son, arise, and return to thy father and say not once, but often, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight. Such are a few out of many instances where Alcuin has left on record the secret of his power over the character of his pupils. He had been their master in things scholastic, but he was also
'
their father in things spiritual.
CHAPTER VI
ALCUIN'S CHARACTER
It is not surprising that conflicting judgments have been passed upon the character of Alcuin. He belonged to an age alien to our own both in the substance and manner of its intellectual life. He belonged, moreover, to an age wherein we see, with some confusion of vision, the disappearance of an old chaotic state of things and the emerging
new social tory when the
of a
it
order,
— one of those times in his-
cross-currents run so strongly that
often becomes hard to hold in view the true
Besides this, it must be remembered that in his chief public activity he was a stranger in a strange land, and the characteristics of the raw, unformed Franks in their effect on the manifestation of his own traits among them, and through his behavior among them to us, must be taken into account. Additional elements which require to be appreciated are the AngloSaxon antecedents of Alcuin, his own personal traits so far as separable from his surroundings, the character of the teaching he received at York and of the masters who gave it, the actual sum of the learning of the time and the nature of his acquaintance with it, and the effect of his own
central drift of affairs.
117
118
efforts
ALCUIN
upon
his pupils
and their
successors.
Thus,
because of this complexity of elements and the
additional embarrassment caused
by the imper-
fection of our records, there have been almost as many opinions as writers about Alcuin. " Consid-
ering the period in which he lived, he
may
be
regarded as a universal genius,"^
is
the judgment
Another depicts him of one of his biographers. as " full of faith in the power and the destiny of
man's
all
intellect, "
and in
fact quite a
modern
in his
attitude.''
The Abb6 Laforet
in his sketch exceeds
bounds of moderation in eulogizing Alcuin 's "The erudition of Alcuin," he writes, " from whatever point it be viewed, embraced both On the world of secular and of sacred learning. one side he brings before us the most famous philosophers, historians and poets of Greece and Rome, and on the other exhibits a knowledge of the whole of ecclesiastical history and Christian doctrine."" Another, with more justice, rates him as "the most learned man of his age,"* but leaves the value of this opinion to be further determined by the character of the learning to which Alcuin had access. Less complimentary, as well as disappointing is the judgment which makes him merely " an estimable man, and a good administrator, but of no
learning.
1
2 8
Lorenz, Lift of Alcuin, London, 1837, p. 245. Monnier, Alcuin et Charlemagne, p. 357.
Laforet, Alcuin Restaurateur des
Science*
en Occident
tout Charlemagne, p. 246.
*
Histoire Lit€raire de la France,
VoL IV, p.
344.
ALCUIN'S CHARACTER
original genius,
119
and cast in a monastic mould." ^ From these diverse estimates, whether eulogistic
or depreciatory,
it is
of Alcuin's
scholarly
qualities,
a relief to turn to such a well-balanced judgas that
was rather and action than of genius and contemplation, like Bede, but his power of organization and of teaching was great, and his services to religion and literature in Europe, based indeed on the foundation of Bede, were more widely extended, and in themselves inestimable."* The same contrariety is discoverable in the estimates put on other phases of Alcuin's character. Thus his humility seems to one ostentatious, and His timidity becomes either to another genuine. rank cowardice or wise prudence. His conservaa
ment
which
asserts that " Alcuin
man
of learning
tive distrust of anything outside the
Roman
tradi-
tion
is
interpreted both as a trait which " dwarfs
littleness,"
'
him almost to
and as the saving quality
due in part to the
of all his teaching.*
Underneath these
diversities,
point of view of the writers and in part to an attention bestowed on certain aspects of Alcuin's character to the obscuring of others,
and thus leading to
is
casual error or even serious disproportion, there
1
*
Laurie, Rise and Early Constitution of Universities, p. 47. " Alcuin," by Bishop Stubbs, in the Dictionary of Christian
Biography.
8 *
Mullinger, Schools of Charles the Great, p. 126. Laforet, Alcuin Restaurateur des Sciences en Occident Moun
p. 247,
Charlemagne,
note
2.
120
ALCUm
much
that
is essential.
all,
yet an agreement as to
After
the original and proper personality of
Alcuin, as distinguished from any modified manifestations of his character under stress of circum-
/
which at times obscured his real self, is He was difl&cult to discover and portray. a man of pure and unselfish character, thoroughly penetrated by a deep and gentle piety joined to Inwrought with these strong moral earnestness. fundamental traits was his Anglo-Saxon sobriety and fidelity, to which his training at the school in York added habits of industry in study and vigorous The models which he conself-control in morals. imitate were those characters sciously aspired to which had themselves been moulded on the strict lines of Church orthodoxy. His intellectual ideals were thus limited by ecclesiastical tradition, and hence his supreme aim as a teacher was to master and communicate the existing learning so far as adopted by the Church, without any thought of criticism upon it or adventurous speculation beyond it. Fidelity to received truth and not discovery of new truth was accordingly his one passion as a student. Whatever cramping effect such a conservative attitude would have had on the development of a learning that had once been planted and needed growth,
stances,
not very
this
injurious effect
was not
visible in Alcuin's
introduction of studies into Frankland.
it
Indeed,
was rather a help than a hindrance to the cause of education that only what was generally accepted
95 settled should be taught at the
first.
Alcuin
ALCUIN'S CHARACTER
121
was therefore the man
versatility in everything,
^
for his time.
The
airy
speculations of the bright Irish scholars, "their
with sure knowledge of nothing," as Theodulf contemptuously put it, and their general tendency to question the body of accepted tradition, would have unfitted them to be introducers and inculcators of the rudiments of a school learning upon which any hope of future progress might securely depend. It was also well that Alcuin joined to his considerable learning both unselfishness of purpose and
great tact.
^
Though Charles assigned
life,
rich bene-
fices for his support,
he remained a poor
the end of his
using the means at his
to further the cause of learning.
man to command Though in the
he
line of succession to the archbishopric of York,
was
indifferent to this as to all other ecclesiastical
advancement, content to be a simple deacon or "humble Levite," as he so often styles himself.
His influence was thus more evidently the result own personal qualities than of the accidents of ecclesiastical station, and the example of selfdenial which he set to his scholars proclaimed eloquently enough the excellence of learning over the advantages of wealth and position. "It is easy indeed to point out to you the path of wisdom," was his noble encouragement to them, "if only ye love it for the sake of God, for knowledge,
of his
for purity of heart,
for understanding the truth,
yea,
and for
itself.
Seek
it
not to gain the praise
iMigne,yol.CV,322.
122
ALCUm
of men, or the honors of this world, nor yet for
the deceitful pleasures of riches, for the more these
things are loved so
those
much
^
the farther do they cause
who
seek them to depart from the light of
truth and knowledge."
best teaching,
This
is
the spirit of his
else,
and
in this, if in
nothing
he
is
the finest soul of his age; nor has any age since
his time either outlived or lived
up
to his monition.
We must also credit him with a certain largeness
He of view in spite of his circumscribed horizon. had some notion of the continuity of the intellectual life of man, of the perils that be set the transmission of learning from age to age, and of the disgrace that attached to those who would allow those noble arts to perish which the wisest of men among the ancients had discovered. He saw clearly that it was vitally important for education to pervade
all hopes of learning were then was also valuable as a civilizing agent in the world. Bestowing his instruction in the first instance on those who were to be churchmen, he also taught clerks and laymen alike at York, at Aachen and at Tours, not for hire, not for ostentation of his erudition, but without money and
the Church, wherein
centred, and that
it
without price, for the love of souls.
Perceiving
his care to
that the precious treasure of knowledge was then
hidden in a few books, he made
transmit to future
slips of the
it
ages
copies
undisfigured by
pen or mistakes of the understanding.
Thus, in every
1
way
that lay within his power,
CI, 860.
Orammatica, Migne,
ALCUIN'S CHARACTER
123
he endeavored to put the fortunes of learning for
the times that should succeed
him
in a position of
advantage, safeguarded by an abundance of truthfully transcribed books, interpreted
his
own
training, sheltered within the
civil
by teachers of Church and
becomes
defended by the
power.
services, it
In view of such inestimable
a matter of small concern to seek after his defects.
They
are visible enough, so far as important to
an
understanding of his place in education, in the
limitations
which
define his
let
ideals
and achieve-
ments.
Therefore,
the best he wrought be
taken as reflecting Alcuin at his best, exhibiting,
as in a fine likeness, the expression for
which he
most deserves to be remembered.
CHAPTER
VII
RABANUS MAURUS AND ALCUIN'S OTHER PUPILS
time of Alcuin's death, the chief posts of advantage for promoting the cause of education within the empire of Charles the Great were held
At the
by
his pupils or friends.
Theodulf was bishop of
Orleans, the adviser of Charles in his later years,
and of his successor, Lewis the Pious. His beloved Amo was archbishop of Salzburg, Riculf of Mayence, Rigbod of Treves, and Leidrad of Lyons; while the younger Eanbald, as archbishop of York, might be depended upon to foster sound learning
in Britain.
Adelhard,
the
princely cousin
retired
of
from court Charles the Great, young man enter the abbey of Corbie when a to near Amiens, had become its abbat, and after the death of Alcuin founded the abbey of new Corbie in Saxony in 822, becoming its first abbat and remaining at the head of both monasteries until
his death in 826.
who had
Angilbert ruled the abbey of St.
Riquier.
to Alcuin
Sigulf became abbat of Perrieres, one
of the houses whose
revenues had been assigned on his coming into Frankland. On the death of Sigulf in 821, Aldrich, who had studied at Tours, succeeded him as abbat of Perrieres, and 80 continued until 829, when he became archbishop
124
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
of Sens.
125
He
also taught theology for a while in
the palace school, and was instrumental in reform-
ing the discipline of the abbey of St. Denis.
He
died at Ferrieres in 836.
Alcuin's favorite pupil,
Fridugis, by his desire succeeded
him
as head of
the monastery and school at Tours in 804, continu-
ing there until his death in 834.
at Aniane in Languedoc.
His friend and
correspondent, St. Benedict, ruled the monastery
Others of his pupils
of lesser fame were scattered here and there in
various schools, while the greatest and almost the
latest of his disciples, young Rabanus Maurus, the primus prceceptor Germanioe, was already teaching in the school at Fulda, destined under his presidency to become more famous than Tours itself. "In that part of Germany which the eastern Franks inhabit," writes Rudolph, the contemporary biographer of Rabanus, "there is a place called Fulda from the name of a neighboring river. It is situated in a great forest which in modern times is called Buchonia, or Beechwood, by the The holy martyr Boniinhabitants of those parts. face, who was sent as an ambassador from the apostolic see into Germany and ordained bishop
of the church of Mayence, obtained this woodland,
the goings and comings of men,
was secluded and far removed from from Carloman, king of the Franks, and by authority of Pope Zacharias founded a monastery there in the tenth year before his martyrdom, being the seven hundred
inasmuch as
it
and forty-fourth year
after the birth of our Lord.
126
ALCUIN
" Now the fifth abbat appointed to rule over the
who was
monastery after the blessed Boniface was Rabanus, also my preceptor, a man deeply religious
and well instructed in Holy Scripture, whose whole study was given to meditation in the law of the Lord and to the teaching of truth, and moreover to
exercising the greatest care over monastic discipline
and the advancement of his scholars." Rabanus was born in Mayence in 776. While yet a child he was sent to the abbey school of Fulda to be educated, and at once embraced the monastic life. The school had already attained great reputation. Its foundation had been laid by Boniface, the "apostle of Germany." Sturm, the first abbat, had visited the Italian abbeys in 747, in search of a pattern for his own, and on his return modeled the abbey and its school after Monte
Cassino, the foremost of the Benedictine houses.
Its second abbat
was Baugulf, who ruled from 780
to 802, coincident with almost the whole time of
Alcuin's activity in the palace school and at Tours. Being then one of the leading abbeys, it was directly affected by the educational revival instituted by Charles under Alcuin's guidance, and the copy of the great capitulary of 787 addressed to Baugulf is the only one that has been preserved to modern times. Rabanus pursued his youthful studies under him and his successor Ratgar, whose interest in his brilliant pupil was deep and constant. Ratgar was soon attracted by the fame of Alcuin, and an old manuscript of Fulda records the fact
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
that in the year 802 he
sent
127
"Kabanus along
Kabanus was
with Hatto to Tours unto Master Albinus, for the
sake of learning the liberal arts."
to Ratgar records his gratitude
fective
not unmindful of the kindness, and in some verses
and laments his dememory, but assures Ratgar that whatever his master taught him was all faithfully committed "It is thy goodness," he says, "that to writing.
has enabled
me
to study books, but the poverty of
my own mind stifles me. Wherefore, whatsoever my master taught me by word of mouth I committed entire to the leaves of books, lest my wandering
wits should lose
at Tours,
it."
^
As companions of his studies
as abbat of Fulda,
Kabanus had Hatto, already mentioned,
who
succeeded
him
later archbishop of Halberstadt, and Samuel,
Haymo, who
became abbat of Lorsch. student days under Alcuin.
encyclopedia,
He
never forgot his In the preface of his
Haymo
letters
On the Universe, Kabanus recalls to the days spent at Tours " in the study of
and meditation on the Scriptures, when we
read together not only the sacred books and the
expositions of the holy fathers thereon, but also
those acute inquisitions of the 'prudent of this
world
'
into the nature of things, recorded in their
descriptions of the liberal arts and their other
investigations."*
Alcuin so highly esteemed his
St.
pupil that he bestowed on him, after his custom,
the special surname Maurus, after
1
Maur, the
Poem
to Ratgar
s X>e Univerao, Preface to
{Carm. XIV), Migne, CXII, 1600. Haymo, Migne, CXI, IL
128
ALCUIN
Benedict.
favorite pupil of St.
After a stay of
not more than a year at Tours, Rabanus returned
and was at once put in charge of the abbey school by Ratgar, with Alcuin's full approval, as may be inferred from a short letter^ he wrote to Rabanus in the year 803, invoking a
to Fulda,
blessing
upon him and
his
scholars.
But
his
interest did not cease here,
and a
still later letter
shows that he and Rabanus kept up a close correspondence.*
In this letter Alcuin congratulates Rabanus on Ms becoming devotion to "sacred wisdom" and
1
3
Ep. 251 Jaffe; 187 Migne. Litterarum series tuarum
Isetificavit
ocalos meos.
Ep. 290
Jaffe'.
It is
true this letter of Alcuin
it
is
not directed to Rabanus by
contains indications that it was sent to him. In the salutation, Alcuin greets his " dearly beloved son and pet animal
name, but
(animali)." Rabanus means "a raven" (rabe), and the designation " pet animal " is in keeping with a humorous habit Alcuin
of playing on the names of his pupils in his letters to them. Moreover, the letter is addressed to one who is commended for his excellence in studies, and abounds in exhortations regarding the teaching of youth who are then subject to him. Still more
had
is the fact that the recipient of the letter is said to have been " a fellow-disciple of Samuel," whom Rabanus himself in one of his poems styles the special sodalis of his earlier days. "My beloved brother," he says in his twenty-second poem, " it was once my joy to have thee as my companion among the other students. Remember me now as I remember you, and let your heart retain and your conduct exhibit that which once our master Albinus taught us." (Migne, CXII, 1604.) Duemmler argues from the mention of Samuel, without observ-
conclusive
was sent to Rabanus (Monumenta Alcuiniana, p. 876, note). Froben inclines to the same view (Migne, vol, C, 459, note on " Samuelia ").
ing the other considerations, that the letter
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
his "love of learning."
129
In response to a previous
request that Alcuin should write an account of his
own conduct and
need these. you to ask
habits so that he might imitate
them, his master expresses surprise that he should
"It seems a marvel," he writes, "for
conduct, since
me to describe my were with me day and night,
you
then
nor was anything
that I did ever concealed from you."
He
reminds him that he would do far better to imitate the examples of the holy men whose lives are
recorded in Scripture, and above all exhorts
him
"to seek after Christ as foretold by the prophets
and set forth in the gospel." "And when you find him," he continues, "do not let him go, but bring him into the house of your heart and keep him He also instructs as the master of your life." him to be careful of his office as a teacher, that the gift of intelligence in him may be increased; "for 'unto him that hath shall be given,' that is, to him that hath a desire of teaching shall be added the His pupils are discernment of understanding." exhorted " to learn in their youth, that they may
be able to teach when they are old." Samuel helped Eabanus in his school work, and
there were other assistants.
The
library of the
some ^ Tours. In poem to Gerhoch, from a of its books the librarian, whom Rabanus fancifully styles his " davipotens frater," or "brother with the power of
abbey was greatly enriched, possibly drawing
1
Alcuin, Ep. 290 Jaffe.
Rabanus asked
for
books from
Alcuin.
130
ALCUm
the keys," he describes the extent of the library. "What can I say," he exclaims, " in the high praise
of books, the books which you, dear brother, keep beneath your key? There is to be found "whatsoever the wisdom of the world has published
in its various ages."
—
The exaggerations
of verse
need not cause us to doubt that the library was ample and one of the completest for its time. A
large part of
title
it
could doubtless be reconstructed by
list
out of the
in his
own
works.
by Kabanus The importance he attached to
of writers quoted
it is also another indication that he was following hard after the example Alcuin had set at Tours in using the library as an indispensable aid to the
school.
became
pupils, and some of them Such were Walafrid Strabo, Servatus Lupus, Kudolph, his biographer, and
He had many
famous.
Otfried of Weissenburg. It is probable that the whole number of his scholars largely exceeded Alcuin' s, for there are very few names of men eminent in education during the next age which
may
two
not be traced back to Fulda or
affiliated lesser schools.
its
twenty-
fourth abbat,
Meanwhile Eigil, the passed away, and Kabanus succeeded
then gave over the charge of teach-
him
in 822.
He
ing the liberal arts to others, reserving to himself
His career as abbat was famous. Under his rule the monastery at Fulda rapidly increased its endowments, and the number of its students and affiliated schools. Its fame for learning and sanctity spread through all of Frankthe interpretation of Scripture.
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
131
land as well as Germany, and extended even to Rabanus became the adviser of kings and Italy.
princes,
to with special veneration as being the one
and even of the pope, and was looked up on whom the mantle of Alcuin had fallen. After ruling the abbey for twenty years, he The brethren urgently sought to retired in 842. But as he refused, they elected Hatto recall him. Rabanus then went into retirement in his place. at Petersberg near by, and devoted his attention In 847 he was made to meditation and writing. of and died in the year 856, archbishop Mayence, village on neighboring the banks of the Rhine, in a taken back to Mayence for whence his body was
burial.
He was
much
not only Alcuin's greatest pupil, but a
greater
man than
in a larger mould.
his master. He was made While a conservative son of the
Church, he endeavored to develop rather than to
confine the ecclesiastical tradition in education,
and is entirely lacking in that timorous shrinking from everything outside the traditional limits which so cramped Alcuin's intellectual exercises. The heathen weapon of dialectics, which had been looked on as a dangerous two-edged sword, he grasped
He without hesitation to wield for the truth. recalled grammar from being a barren study of
words and letters and syllables, and connected it again with the study of literature. Instead of treating astronomy as merely a ready-reckoning machine for working out the church calendar, he urged its
132
ALCUm
And so with
to disengage
study as a lofty intellectual exercise.
the other disciplines.
Though unable
himself from most of the prevalent errors of his
time,
he must be credited with improving on Alcuin's treatment of the liberal arts to a very The whole volume of secular marked degree. expanded under his teaching and yet withlearning
out prejudice to the study of Scripture.
He
also
contributed distinctly to the general advance of
thought which ended in bringing in scholasticism.
He
boldly insisted on applying the processes of
reason to systematizing the facts of religion, and
in this occupies a middle position between the
irresponsible speculative spirit of Erigena
uncritical crudeness of tradition.
and the
The whole temper of his mind was more open and courageous than Alcuin's. When he came to deal with natural events, he did not childishly seek to ascribe them to occult causes, but referred them to the order of nature established by the Creator; and so, when a superstitious mob in his time sought to "bring help to the waning moon" by their cries and shouts, with the beating of drums and sounding of horns, he rebuked them, bidding them remember that the regular changes and even the portents in the skies were all the work of a wise Creator who was able to manage the world he had made. There was also in him, as might have been expected, marked generosity and sympathy. He was more than once reproved for being over-liberal to the poor, and in the time of famine exerted
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
himself unsparingly to relieve the distress.
attaphes to his
133
The
only instance of unjust severity to another that
name was
the flogging of the
monk
Gotteschalk by his
order for heretical teaching
touching the doctrine of predestination.
narian,
life.
But, set-
ting this aside, Rabanus, though a strict discipli-
was likewise a humane man through
all his
He was
also prudent, for in the midst of
bloody dissensions and plots that thickened around
the successors of Charles the Great, and the violent internal strife
which rent his own monastery
before he became abbat, he so deported himself as
to preserve the regard of every faction.
Taken
it
as
a whole, the personality of Rabanus charms us by
its
independence and vigor, tempered, as
was, by
humanity, good sense, and a loyal respect for the Church he served.
On
the educational side, however, his activity as
call for notice,
a teacher and a writer chiefly
his
and
both of these are seen to the best advantage in
important educational works, which deserve
separate and somewhat detailed examination.
His works, which have come to us substantially
entire, are indeed voluminous,
least three times greater in extent
being collectively at than those of his
teacher Alcuin, and ominously suggest the
monu-
mental vastness of the scholastic writings yet to come. Most of his writings, perhaps seven-eighths in all, are theological, being devoted chiefly to a series
of elaborate commentaries, expositions, and " narrations " on thirty-three books of the Old and New
131
ALCUIN
lit-
Testament, including a complete explanation,
eral, allegorical,
and mystical, of the Pentateuch and nearly all the historical books of the Old Testament, together with Proverbs, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, as well as the Gospel of Matthew and all In all this he was only the epistles of St. Paul. following after the ideal that was ever before him of acquainting himself and others with the whole plenitude of Scripture. For "in the knowledge of Holy Scripture," as he writes in his book On
the Instruction
of the Clergy, "is the foundation,
the establishment and the perfecting of wisdom."*
Herein
is
contained the wisdom that flows from
the eternal and unchangeable Wisdom, even from the mouth of the Most High himself. It is " first-
born before all other creatures." The unfailing light that burns within the Scriptures "streams forth over all the world as though let out from a lantern." By that light he studied, devoting
his long life to a whole-souled
tempt to
set forth their
and untiring supreme excellency.
at-
But in addition to his theological writings, Rabanus composed several treatises which bear in whole or in part on education. These are the works, On the Instruction of the Clergy, On Reckoning,
An
the
On
Excerpt on the Chrammatical Art of Priscian, Universe (which may equally well be
entitled
On
Everything^, a short Latin- Tudesque
tract On the Origin of Languages. Perhaps to these should be added his short Treatise
Glossary,
and a
1 j)e
Clericorum Institutione,
III,
cap. 2.
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
on
the Soul,
136
which, like Alcuin's on the same subthe Instruction of the Clergy
*
ject, is
based on Augustine.
His work On
written
was
in the year 819 in response to urgent
requests from the monks of Fulda and others that he should compose a compendium of the things most necessary for the clergy to know. It is divided into three books. The first deals with the organization of the Church, its orders of clergy, its vestments and sacraments. The second describes the round of ecclesiastical duties, the feasts and fasts of the year, and parts of the church service, including also some notice of the books of Scripture, the orthodox creed and the various opposing heresies. The third book, as Rabanus states, "teaches how all that is written in the sacred books is to be searched and studied, as well as those things in the arts and studies of the heathen which are useful for an ecclesiastic to inquire into." ^ It is this third book which has educational interest, for, although primarily intended as a manual
for the education of clergy, it contains
relates to secular learning.
much
that
the
The book opens with proposition that any one who would fulfil the
sacred clerical duties ought to be a
man
of "pleni-
tude of knowledge, rectitude of
of erudition."
fully
life
by
saying, "
Rabanus goes on to Such an one should not be allowed
and perfection define this more
1 De Clericorum Institutione in Migne's Patrologia Latina, CVII, 29^-419. a De Clericorum Institutione, Frsefatio.
186
ALCUm
any of those things wherein
is,
to be ignorant of
it
will be his duty to instruct both himself and those
who
are subject to him, that
of the
tures, of the clear truth of history, of the
Holy Scripmodes of
of
figurative speech, of the signification of mystical
things,
of the utility of all the disciplines,
life
and probity of morals, of elegance in the delivery of discourses, of wisdom in the setting forth of doctrines and of the different
uprightness of
remedies suited to the variety of spiritual diseases."^
His educated man
is,
therefore, to be
conversant with Scripture, with history, with an
understanding of
the figures of speech and the
and of all the useful knowledge in the different liberal disciplines. Besides this, he is to be a man of probity in life and especially accomplished in rhetoric and dialectics.
mystical sense of things,
" One
who
does not
know
these things
is
not only
unable to be useful to others, but even to himself.
Therefore
it is
needful that the future ruler of a
people, while he has leisure,
should prepare in
advance the weapons whereby he
may
bravely
conquer the enemy and defend the flock committed For it is a base thing that one who has to him. been appointed a pastor of souls should only begin to desire to learn at the time when he ought to be
ready to teach, and
it is
a perilous thing for any
if
one to take up the burden of a ruler
•
he cannot
ably support that burden by the strength of his
own wisdom."
^
And
then comes one of those
I, !»
De CUricorum Inttitutione,
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
golden sentences wherein
best.
137
we hear Kabanus at his "Let no one dare to teach any art, unless he has first learned it by prolonged study."* The imperative tone was needed, for he was waging relentless war against the promotion of ignorant clergy to posts of honor. "There are some," he says, " who within the Church itself seek promotion
solely from ambition.
is
As
the Scripture attests,
it
they
who
covet the
first
salutations in the market-
place, the chief places at feasts,
and the chief
seats
in
the synagogues.
.
.
.
They
are the ignorant
shepherds
saying,
stand.'
who
are reproved by the prophet Isaiah,
'These are shepherds that cannot under-
By
reason of their ignorance, those
who
follow
them stumble, and hence
fall into
in the gospel
Christ the Truth saith, 'If the blind lead the blind,
tiey shall both
scriptural
the ditch.'"
illustration
By
such
exhortation and
Eabanus
develops the opening chapter of the third book,
and prepares the way for setting forth the education needed for the elevation of the clergy.
He then proceeds
that knowledge of
in the second chapter to explain
is both the beginning and the completion of wisdom, because Scrip-
Holy Scripture
ture
is
the highest utterance of
God
himself, the
eternal
Whatever truth there may be elsewhere, whether in the Church or out of it, has its source, it is true, in the same eternal Wisdom from which the Scriptures come. But as Scripture
Wisdom.
1
Nulla ars doceri prsesumator,
I,
nisi prios intenta
meditatione
discator.
L
188
is
ALCUm
the transcendent and highest utterance of the
is
it
Divine Wisdom, so
superior to the
wisdom
found in the Church or in the world outside. Yet as " Whatall truth has one source he goes on to say ever truth there may be anywhere is to be known as truth by bringing it to a test of truth, and whatever good there is anywhere is discovered to be
:
good by a standard of goodness. Nor are the true and wise things which are to be found in the books of the 'prudent of this world to be attributed to any other source than truth and wisdom itself, because these truths were not constructed originally by those in whose writings they are found, but were truths existing from eternity which they merely discovered. For Truth and Wisdom, the teacher and enlightener of all, granted them the power to search them out. Therefore, all the useful knowledge that lies in the books of the heathen, and the salutary truths of Scripture as well, are to be used for one purpose and referred to one end, that is, the perfect knowledge of truth and the highest excellence of wisdom." This is Augustine revived in his most generous mood, speaking by the The cramping and shrinking voice of Kabanus. of Alcuin's spirit is no longer here, and in such a passage as this Rabanus when compared with him seems a giant. The book then goes on to explain the spirit and method of studying the Scriptures, closely following the treatise of Augustine On
'
Christian Doctrine.^
I
De
Clericoirum Institutione,
m,
cap. 15, at the end.
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
139
Beginning at the sixteenth chapter, eleven successive chapters are devoted to secular learning, a separate one being assigned to each of the seven liberal
arts.
Kabanus
first
distinguishes between the fun-
damentally true things of ancient secular learning and the false inventions which were attached to it.
Such were
all
magic
arts,
the worship of idols, the
taking of omens, astrological calculations, and the
other varieties of "pernicious superstition."
On
the other hand the body of
which life here below, is by no is so needful for our means to be despised by a Christian. Nay, he insists, it should be "studied and held firmly in mind," and whoso does this will understand, the more he studies, that the whole of truth taken as one redounds to the "honor and love of one God."* His following account of the liberal arts separately
learning,
is
human
of distinct interest.
Grammar he
defines as
"the science of interpreting the poets and historians,
ing.
and the
art of correct writing
and speak-
It is the
foundation of the liberal arts."
Alcuin had confined grammar to the explanation Eabanus of how to write and speak correctly.
adds to this narrow formal side the literary side, which was included in the broader definition of the
it from had been reduced by the However, he extols the treatment of Alcuin. Christian against the classical poets, and cites
Roman
grammarians, and thereby rescues
it
the barrenness to which
1
Ad
tinius
Dei laudem atque dilectionem concta convertere.
m, cap. 17.
J40
ALCUIN
Sedulius,
Juvencus,
books."
Arator,
Alcimus,
Clement,
Paulinus, and Fortunatus^ as "writers of famous
He
allows with restriction the reading of
classical poets,
mainly for the sake of their " flowers
" And so
of eloquence."
poets,
when we read
the heathen
and the books of secular wisdom come into our hands," he writes by way of general conclusion, "let us turn to our own instruction whatever we find useful in them; but if there be anything
superfluous concerning idols or love or the care of
secular things," all such passages are to be passed
by or expunged. The chapter on
rhetoric contains little of special
note, but the next one
on
dialectics is important.
"Dialectics," according to his definition, "is the
rational discipline concerned with definitions
and
explanations, and able even to separate truth from
Such an utterance is in marked conwith Alcuin, who would never have countenanced so bold and sweeping an assertion of the
falsehood."
trast
sufficiency of dialectics as a means of discerning between truth and error; but Rabanus waxes very bold and asserts further that "this is accordingly
the discipline of disciplines.
teach and
herself,
how
to learn.
It teaches us how to In this Reason reveals
and shows clearly what she is, what she means and what she perceives. This discipline alone knows how to know, and is both willing For when we and able to make others know.
1 It is
interesting to notice that all these i>oet8 are in Alcmn's
list
of the books at York.
See pages 34 and 35.
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
reason with
it,
141
we
learn
what we
are
and whence
we
are.
We
understand the difference between a
good-doer and a good deed, between a creator and
a creature.
error.
We
investigate truth;
we
fasten on
By this we reason and
follows and
sistent,
what what does not follow; what is inconwhat is true, and what is probable, as well
discern between
as
what is thoroughly false." While Eabanus cannot be credited, as some have
supposed, with an important advance on Boethius
and with consciously opening up the dialectical activity of the early Middle Ages, it is yet true that his enthusiastic commendation of dialectics was
influential in preparing the
way
for the reign of
Of course such a weapon as Kabanus defined dialectics to be, must have eminent value
logic later. ^
for the Church.
Wherefore," he says, "the clergy ought to know this most noble art and to have its
laws constantly before them in meditation, that
"
they
ions
may be able
to penetrate
with subtlety into the
craftiness of the heretics,
and confute their opin-
by the magical conclusions of syllogisms." His speculative contemporary, Scotus Erigena, could have asked little more. Yet Rabanus guards himself by distinguishing between what he calls sophisms and truths. "There are true modes," he
says, " of connecting not only true
but even false
1 So aiisserte die Schule welche Hrabanus bekanntlich in Fulda eingerichtet liatte auch auf den Betrieb der Logik
. . .
einen hochst giinstigen Einfluss.
— Prantl, Geschichte der Logik^
U,40.
142
ALCUIN
Now, these true modes
of connection
opinions.
may be
learned in the schools which are outside
is
the Church, but the truth of opinions
to be stud-
ied in the holy books of the Church."
The forms
of logic
may be
learned outside, but the substance
of truth necessary for arriving at a sound conclusion can be learned only in books of the Church.
where his use of dialectics from that of Erigena. Eabanus would never have approved using Plato and Martianus Capella
here, after all, is
differs
And
for substance of doctrine equal in value with Scripture, as
Erigena did.
And he was consistent,
for after
once asserting that the Scriptures are the highest
form of truth and that other truths are to be
inter-
preted in their light, the material for his reasoning
was unchangeably defined and estimated
tics,
in advance.
After thus treating grammar, rhetoric, and dialec-
he proceeds to describe the four remaining arts, which he includes, following a common custom, under the general name of mathematics. The first
of the four
is
arithmetic, " the study of numerical
It is, as he shows, the fundamental "mathematical discipline," without knowledge of which neither music, nor geometry, nor astronomy can be pursued. A Christian is not to
quantity," pure and simple.
despise this secular study, for does not Josephus,
that most learned Jew, relate
first to
how Abraham was
the
deliver both the arithmetical and astronomi-
cal art to the
Egyptians?
The seed
of this knowl-
edge, which the father of the faithful sowed
among
them, they cultivated and also developed therefrom
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
143
the other disciplines. Then, too, the Church fathers
strongly
commend
the study of arithmetic, inas-
mind from carnal desires by leading it to abstract meditation. Scripture, God too, commends the study in many places. himself made the world "by measure and weight and number," as we read in the Book of Wisdom. Nay, more " the very hairs of our head are num-
much
as it abstracts the
:
bered," as the gospel explicitly asserts.
Then
there are the writings of Plato, "of great authority,"
though
less
than Scripture, which represent
to us the Creator building the universe according
to numerical harmonies
and proportions.
Another
consideration
is
to be found in the mystical signifi-
cance of particular numbers mentioned in Scripture.
"Thus," says Eabanus, "six is a perfect number, for did not God make the world in six days?" And yet he audaciously observes: "We
are not to say that the
number six is perfect because work of creation in six days, but that he accomplished the work in six days
God accomplished
because six
is
his
a perfect number.
Nay, even
if
his
work had not been finished in six days, yet would the number still be a perfect one." Now, the Bible
book to many because of their "Wherefore," he writes, "it is needful, if any one would arrive at the knowledge of Holy Scripture, that he should study this art intently, so that when he has learned it he may the easier understand the mystical numbers in the sacred books." Alcuin would have commended
is
really a sealed
ignorance of arithmetic.
144
ALCUIN
heartily this exposition of arithmetic in general.
Yet in two respects
Plato
is
it
departs from Alcuin, foi
quoted as "of great authority," though
with some reserve, and a " perfect number " is represented as something regulative of the activity
of
God
himself.
Thus already
in the barren field
of arithmetic, as well as in dialectics, the shoots of
speculation were beginning to spring up.
The account of geometry indicates that Rabanus had been reading one of Erigena's favorite books, the Latin translation by Chalcidius of the TimcBus
of Plato.
"The
philosophers," he says, "testify
in their writings that Jupiter geometrizes."
He
per-
prudently remarks that, "
if
this saying be applied
it
wisely to God, the omnipotent Creator,
;
may
haps be congruent with truth for geometry, if we may be allowed to say so, has a holy divinity of its
it imposes its various forms and models on creation, and maintains it in existence up
own, inasmuch as
to the present day."
The courses
of the stars
and
the "fixed linear"
(statutis lineis) constitution of
bodies in motion or at rest are cited as examples of
the sancta divinitas of geometry.
art is referred to the Egyptians,
Its origin as an and Varro, "the
most learned of the Latins," is cited to prove that geometry began with mensuration. A consideration which makes it acceptable to a Christian is, that it was used in building the tabernacle and the temple, in constructing which there was evident need "of the measurement of the line, the circle, the sphere, the hemisphere, and also of the
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
quadrangle."
discernment."
Lastly,
is
146
"an acquaintance with
all
geometrical figures
of help towards spiritual
Music is defined as " the discipline which treats of the numbers which pertain to it, that is, of those which occur in sounds." "One sound," for example, " is the double,
the treble, or the quadruple of
so useful that without
it
another."
Music
is
the
church service cannot be fully performed, inasmuch as not only pleasant modulation in singing but
proper pronunciation in reading call for musical
skill.
It is also noble as well as useful. " the heaven and the earth and all that are in
For them
are ruled
by harmony, Pythagoras
is
is
testifying that
the world was created according to the harmonies
of music, and
oras,
governed by the same."
not the only authority.
Pythag-
however,
is
The
art
of music
blended with the Christian religion,
and ignorance of music is an impediment to faith. Ko heed is to be paid to the heathen superstitions which make the Muses daughters of Jove. The
learned Varro, a heathen himself, has refuted this
notion,
showing that Jove was not the father of the But whether Varro's opinion be true or not makes little difference, "for we ought not to avoid music, the art of the Muses, because of proMuses.
fane superstitions, so long as
it is
possible to extract
from
it
useful
help
for
understanding
Holy
Scripture."
The
folly of such a course
would be
as great as a refusal to learn letters because the
heathen said Mercury was the god of
letters, or to
146
ALCUIN
refuse to practice justice and virtue because they dedicated temples to Justice and Virtue. " On the
contrary," says Rabanus, echoing Augustine, "let
every good and true Christian
know
that all truth,
wherever he finds
is
it,
belongs to his Lord."
The exposition of astronomy, which next follows, lighted up with an enthusiasm almost as great His openas appears in the account of dialectics. ing statement is impressive. "If we pursue this
study with chastened and moderate
as the ancients say,
fill
spirit, it will,
our thoughts with deep and
all their
reverent love.
How great a thing it is to approach in
spirit to the heavens,
— to explore
supernal
mechanism by rational
intellectual
and by lofty insight to observe anywhere and everyinvestigation,
!
where the veiled secrets of their vast greatness " How feeble and poverty-stricken, in the light of
such a conception as
of astronomy a
this, is the
interminable astro-
nomical correspondence of Alcuin, which makes
the church feasts
cumbrous machine for calculating Not that Rabanus refuses the
!
determination of the church calendar a place in
astronomy.
it is
On
the contrary, he expressly includes
is
therein.
But astronomy
far
more
to him.
It
the study of the " law of the stars, which
know
as
not either
how
to
move or stop other wise than
the Creator has ordained."
have now passed in review. "are the seven liberal arts of the philosophers." The "seven liberal arts"! It
The seven
arts
"Here," he
says,
is
apparently the
first
instance in history of the
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
use of the term.
147
Christianity has at last sucin
ceeded after
ales.
centuries
converting
the artes
liber-
liberales of the ancients into
the septem artes
The change
of feeling
from antagonism to
toleration,
and then into friendly regard, slowly outworking in Western Christendom from the time of Augustine and Cassiodorus onward, ends with
the adoption of the liberal arts and the concurrent
prefixing of a Christian
closing his account
name
to them.
So in
in
Rabanus commends them
general as "useful for all Christians."
He
goes
even farther, and adds that "anything the philosophers have written that is true and agreeable to
faith,
was not always quite ready
for our
especially the Platonic philosophers" (he to say Plato) " is not to
be viewed with alarm, but to be taken from them
own
use."
By way
of further enforcement,
he repeats what Augustine had said about taking the gold and the silver of the Egyptians and avoidAs a final ing their superstitions* and idolatry. and supreme caution, he reminds those who have been instructed in the liberal arts to approach the higher study of the Scriptures ever remembering the apostolic watchword, Scientia inflat, charitas mdijkat " (" knowledge puffeth up, but love buildethup"). The rest of the work is devoted to miscellaneous instruction on the art of speaking wisely and eloHis quently, with special reference to preaching. remarks in the thirtieth chapter on the need of using language easily comprehended when speaking
148
AliCUIN
to the people " miglit well have been inscribed in
on every pulpit from his own to the They might equally well be inscribed on every teacher's desk. " Although a good teacher," he says, "ought to be so careful in his teaching that he will not consider an obscure or ambiguous word to be good Latin, still, while avoiding ambiguities and obscurities, let him speak after the fashion of the people, and not as the educated but as the uneducated speak. For of what value is that excellence of expression which the intellect of the hearer does not follow and which they do not underletters of gold
present day."
*
stand to
whom we may understand?
are speaking in order that they
Therefore, let
him who
teaches
avoid all words that do not teach. ^
if he can find other excellent words which will be understood, let him choose such; but if he cannot, either because there are no such words or because they do not occur to him at the time, let him use words that are less excellent, provided only the thing itself be taught and learned excellently." His reasons are no less sensible than his injunctions. "We must insist on being understood,"' he says, " not only when we converse with one or a few persons, but much more when we speak in public, for in conversation every one has an opportunity to question us, but where all sit in silence listening
So then,
1
3
Mullinger, Schools of Charles the Great, p. 145. Qui ergo docet, vitabit verba omnia quae non docent.
m,
cap. 30.
'
Ut
intelligamur instandum
est.
Ill,
cap. 30.
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
to one speaker,
it
149
is
neither right nor decent to
hold any auditor responsible for what he has not
For this reason he who speaks ought make it his care to help him who silently listens. Now, an audience that is anxious to learn is apt to show by its own behavior whether
understood.
to
or not. Until it does it really understands understand we should keep presenting the point Those who teach only at issue in various ways.
what they have prepared and committed word by word to memory have not the power to accomplish this. Then when it is clear that the point is understood, continue the discourse and pass to the other points, for as he who makes clear what we wish to know is an acceptable teacher, so he becomes burdensome when inculcating what we already know."^
There is a statement in Trithemius,' a late biographer of Kabanus, that he wrote while a youth PrcBparamenta, or hand-books of the seven liberal arts "in many volumes." In the writings which have
come
to us, however, there are only two treatises on separate arts, and it is not certain that they are part of the Prceparamenta mentioned by Trithemius. However, as treatises on two of the arts, they may be noticed here. One is entitled An Excerpt on the Grammatical Art of Priscian. It consists of extracts from the grammar of Priscian copied bodily with1
Sicnt enim gratns est qui agnoscenda enubilat, sic onerosus,
Ill,
qui cognita inculcat.
3
cap. 30.
103.
Migne, Patrologia Latina, CVII,
.
150
ALCUm
out indication of any authorship on the part of
Rabanus, apart from a short poem added at the end. The other treatise is entitled On Reckoning
(Computus), and consists of ninety-six short chapters.
It is the
in the year 820.
work of Eabanus, and was written Like some of Alcuin's writings,
it is cast in the form of a dialogue between a master and his pupil. Augustine, Boethius, and
it, but Bede is the author most used in its preparation. The first eight chapters deal with the importance of numbers, the definition of the term " number " itself, the different
Isidore are quoted in
kinds of numbers, treated grammatically rather than
mathematically,
" denuntiative."
onings,
nal, ordinal, adverbial, distributive, multiple,
— numbers being defined as cardiand
is
Then follow the two different reckand on the
fingers.
by
letters
Notation
given both according to the Greek and the
Roman
numeral
scribed
tory.
is
letters
while the finger-reckoning de-
one of the curiosities in educational hisThe method of counting with the fingers is
explained as follows:
finger (medicus),
On
the left hand there are
finger (impudicus)
three fingers, the little finger {auricularis),the fourth
and the third
Accordingly the digits from one to nine can be
counted by beginning with bending the
little finger
toward the palm, and so proceeding to make other number-gestures in sequence with the three fingers.
Besides the three fingers mentioned, there are the
index
fins^er
and the thumb, and by various
flex-
ions of these the tens are indicated from ten to
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
151
ninety, so that with the left hand alone every number short of one hundred could be counted. Then there is the right hand, where the counting begins with the thumb and the index finger, and
then proceeds to the three other fingers,
hand.
— just the
reverse of the method used in counting on the left
The right-hand thumb and finger are used by various flexions to indicate the hundreds from one hundred to nine hundred, and the three other fingers on the right hand are used similarly to indicate the thousands from one thousand to nine thousand. Thus, if the two hands be spread out, palms down, units will be reckoned from the left on the little finger, the fourth finger, and the third finger of the left hand tens will be reckoned on the index finger and thumb of the left hand; hundreds on the thumb and index finger of the right hand; thousands on the other three fingers of the Accordingly, the two hands taken right hand. together could be used to count up to any number short of ten thousand. This notation by finger flexion was extended still further by placing the left hand in various ways on different parts of the body, and so counting by tens of thousands, from ten thousand to ninety thousand; and in the same way the right hand when placed opposite corresponding parts of the body enabled counting to be done by the hundred-thousand, from one hundred thousand up to nine hundred thousand. An example or two of this barbarous method may be given. "When you say one," observes the master to his
;
152
ALCUIN
"bend the little and place
finger
it
pupil,
on the
left
hand
slightly inward
in the palm."
"When
you say ten, put the tip of the index finger against the middle of the thumb." Of course, eleven would be counted by doing both of these at once or in In the same way a hundred is indisuccession. cated on the right hand by putting the tip of the index finger against the middle of the thumb, just A thousand as ten was counted on the left hand. is indicated with the little finger of the right hand as one was indicated with the little finger of the left Any number short of ten thousand could hand. therefore be counted by the two hands without reference to the other parts of the body. For numbers from ten thousand upwards, a different method is used, as mentioned above. Ten thousand is indicated by placing the left hand flat on the breast, but with the fingers pointing upwards and twenty thousand, with the same hand spread out flat across the chest; sixty thousand, with the same hand flat against the
;
The hundred-thousands are indicated manner with the right hand. Consequently, by a series of gestures any number short The two hands of a million may be indicated.
left thigh.
in a similar
clasped together in front, with the fingers inter-
twined, highest
is
the gesture for a million, which
of this digital reckoning.
is
the
That such a system of gesture-numbers should have been deemed worthy of record and explanation by Rabanus for the benefit of the monks at Fulda is sad evidence of the crass ignorance that was
number
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
prevalent.
153
Counting on the
fingers, the
mode of
reckoning in vogue among the lowest savages,
awkward, cumbrous, devoid of any but the rudest intellectual quality, has often been characteristic of tribes which were never able to emerge from their barbarism. Whenever, therefore, we are tempted to look with contempt at the childishness of the best men of the early Middle Ages in their attempts to humanize and christianize the Saxon or the Frank, let the character of the material on which they were working be duly considered, and then their childishness is seen to be wisdom, because they essayed to do only what could be done in the circumstances. Or, as Rabanus might have put it himself, " They taught in the words that teach, not in those which do not teach." The rest of his book on reckoning deals with the Roman divisions of weights, namely, the pound
{libra), containing twelve ounces (uncice), each ounce containing twenty-four scruples (scripult), and each scruple in turn containing six siliquoe. He remarks that these names for weights may be
applied not only to the varieties of money, but to divisions of time as well. He is in need of something to serve the purpose of fractions, and yet, like
Alcuin, has no notion of what a fraction
ions of weights and measures are
is.
It is
interesting. to notice, however, that the sub-divis-
made on the
scale
of six or twelve, that
is,
are duodecimal, whereas
the notation he described for integers was decimal.
The
divisions of time
which occupy several chap*
154
ALCUm
odd enough.
ters are
is
The smallest element of time
There are said to be three hundred seventy-six atoms in one "ostentum," which corresponds with our minute. The ostentum in turn is the sixtieth part of the hour, and one and one-half hours are called a "moment." The word "minute" occurs in Rabanus, but it means the tenth part of an hour, and the "point" is a quarter of an hour. Furthermore, "the hour is the twelfth part of a day," he continues, "for our Lord asserts this, saying, 'Are there not twelve hours in the day? " The rest of the book is
'
called the "atom."
devoted to the parts of the year, the calendar in
general,
the phenomena of the sun,
moon and
method of calculating Easter, including a singular method of calculating the lunar epact on the joints of the hand and closing remarks on the ages of the world's history. The Computiis contains no examples in arithmetic, so that it is impossible to compare it intelligently with Alcuin's
planets, with the
arithmetical propositions.
It is to be regarded not
as a formal treatise on arithmetic, but as a hand-
book of reckoning, including numbers, weights, and measures, the divisions of time, and so much astronomy as related to the general appearance of the sky, and the calculation of the church calendar. In connection with his writings on the liberal
arts it will be appropriate to notice
the LatinIt professes
Tudesque Glossary attributed to him.
to be written
down by
his pupil, Walafrid Strabo,
presumably from dictation.
It contains less than
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
166
two hundred Latin words, some of which are defined in Latin and others are given with their Tudesque equivalents. They are the names of the parts of the human body, and at the end are added the names of the months and the winds, in both languages. It is interesting as showing the incipient recognition of the vulgar languages on the part of the learned, and more especially the interest felt by Rabanus in the early German tongue. Even in Alcuin's time Latin was being pronounced in a barbarized fashion, which pointed to its coming Rabanus had exhorted those who were to fate.
preach to speak so that the people could under-
and not to insist on learned propriety of In this glossary he goes a step farther, and compiles a short list of words in frequent use in Latin with their vulgar Tudesque equivalents. Many of them have the lineaments Thus the Latin os (mouth) of modern German. is the Tudesque mund; the Latin jecur (liver) is For the Latin pes (foot) we have an lebera. approximation to the German /wss in the Tudesque
stand,
expression.
phuoz.^
with a short tract On the of it is taken from Jerome. It contains, with comments, a Hebrew, a Greek and a Latin alphabet, with the sound of each
Rabanus
is
also credited
Origin of Languages.^
Some
letter indicated in
Roman letters. Omega in Greek,
"o longa."
for example, is called
1
Then comes a
1580.
Migne, CXII, 1575.
> J)e Jnventione
Linguarum, Migne, CXII,
166
ALCUIN
is
supposed Scythian alphabet, which
briefly de-
scribed and attributed to Jerome. Rabanus does not
seem
to
be very sure that he understands
:
it,
for
he
says naively to his readers
" If
we have committed
any mistakes in this alphabet or any faults in the others, do you correct them." Then comes the alphabet used by the Marcomanni, " whom we call the Northmen, and from whom the tribes who speak the Tudesque language are descended." Following this are abbreviations for Roman proper names and
the so-called Notod Coesaris, or
that
in
is,
"Marks
all are
of Caesar,"
combinations of dots used instead of vowels
inscriptions.
Roman
Last of
some mono-
grams of Scriptural names.
lology, there
it.
As an
essay in phi-
is,
of course, nothing to be said about
At
best, it
may
pass for a hand-book of alpha-
bets,
useful for scribes, though probably not for
general instruction in schools.
Passing by his treatise
On
the Soul,^
which has
only indirect educational bearings, there remains
for consideration his encyclopedia of all knowledge,
entitled
On
the Universe.^
It
was written about the
year 844, after he had retired from the abbey of Fulda and gone into retreat at Petersberg. For the
composition of such a work he naturally resorted
to the
huge Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, who had given the Middle Ages its first encyclopedia in twenty elaborate books. Following the example of Isidore, who had plundered the classical writers
1
*
De Anima, Migne, CX, 1109. De Universo, Migne, CXI, 9-614.
EABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
to construct his
167
book very much as Eomans in the Middle Ages plundered the Coliseum to build their houses, Kabanus in turn takes most of his book from
Isidore,
omitting the account of the liberal arts
he had written of elsewhere, expanding Isidore's statements in places, borrowing also from Bede in his chapter on chronology, from Lactantius for
the account of the Sibyls, and from Jerome for the
geography of Palestine and the explanation of Hebrew names. But, instead of elaborating his
work in twenty books, as did Isidore, Eabanus had enough matter for twenty-two. Now, although twenty-two was not a sacred number, he was still fortunate enough to chance on the fact that Jerome had divided the whole of the Old Testament into twenty -two books, thus furnishing him with a venerable, if not a sacred precedent.
It is a dreary
enough task to read continuously such a work, but, without some understanding of both the scope and
diversity of its contents,
it is difficult
to appreciate
what was the sum of knowledge of that time, or the attitude of mind which an educator had to
encounter.
An
exhibition of
its
contents
is
a
decided help towards appreciating the confused
medley of general information, at best taken at second or third hand, which was then accepted unquestioningly as the body of settled truth. It is also a help in the same way towards appreciating the untrained and credulous condition of mind which characterized not alone the uneducated but Against such a backgroxind of even the clergy.
!
158
ALCUIN
general misinformation
slightest light shine!
how
brightly does even the
is
and how real
the contrast
between Rabanus, foolish as much of his writing was, and the age he was attempting to educate The But let us examine his encyclopedia. twenty -two books fall into two parts, the first five dealing with sacred and the other seventeen with In spite of the apparent consecular knowledge. fusion, there is a thread of logical continuity which
holds the work together.
Thus the order
is
;
of sub-
jects in the first five books
as follows:
God,
then his creatures, celestial and terrestrial that is The account of the men to say, angels and men.
is
confined to the Bible.
Accordingly,
first
comes
Adam, with the other antediluvians
following,
then the patriarchs with other notable Old Testa-
ment men and women, and then the prophets, followed by New Testament persons and the marNext comes an account of the Church, with tyrs. chapters on the Church and the synagogue, religion
monks, and other orders and schism, definitions the true faith and church doctrine, and relating to of the Scriptures, embracing account some notice of the authorship of each book, with a summary of
and
faith, the clergy, the
of the faithful,
heresy
tiie
contents.
Then, by an odd but not unnatural
libraries,
digression,
we have a chapter on
and
be
"The
Diversity of Literary Works."
This "diver-
sity" relates to kinds of treatises that
sion into chapters and verses,
may
written, the various parts of a discourse, the divi-
and the material
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
make-up
patristic
159
of books.
Then
follows
a chapter on
list
the "canons of the Gospels," being a
of ten
harmonies of the Gospels, followed by other chapters on the decrees of the church councils,
the Easter cycle, the canonical divisions of
the
day
and
the
appropriate
duties
attached
thereto, with closing chapters
on
sacrifices, sacra-
ments, exorcisms, creeds, prayer and fasting, confession
and penance.
books
close,
With
this account of God,
his creatures, his Church,
first
and the Scriptures, the
five
the exposition of secular
knowledge beginning with the sixth book. The sixth book is on "Man and his Parts," that " is to say, on human nature, and the various " parts or functions of the soul and body, explained literally, mystically and allegorically, all with proper Scripture proof -texts. It includes also an explanation of the various postures and
movements
of the
body.
Standing
is
thus symbolical of belief, for
the Apostle says, " Stand fast in the faith."
closing chapter of the book
of the
is
The
devoted to the parts
human body which
in Scripture are said to
be parts of the devil's body.
eyes, nostrils, tongue,
tail,
Among them
are the
mouth, bones, and even a inasmuch as "he swingeth his tail like a
is
cedar."
The seventh book
degrees
a sort of sequel to the sixth,
dealing with the periods of
of relationship
human
life,
the various
by marriage, with two
chapters on monstrosities, such as the fauns, the
satyrs, the giants, the
dog-headed men, Cerberus
160
ALCUIN
and the Chimaera, and on "herds and beasts of
burden," that
is,
the domestic animals.
is zoological.
The eighth book
lions,
It first gives
an
account of wild beasts in general, starting out with
panthers,
pards,
leopards,
all
tigers,
wolves,
foxes, dogs, apes, "
and
other animals that prey
either with teeth or claws,
excepting serpents."
Every beast in the list has its natural description, The and a special mystical meaning as well. spotted pard, to take one example from many, is
rich in significance.
devil,
It "mystically signifies the
who
is full
of manifold wickedness."
Again
it typifies
" the sinner covered with the spots of sin
and of divers errors. Hence the prophet says, The pard cannot change his spots. " It is also
' '
connected with the millennium,
shall lie
"when
'the
pard
down with the
kid. ' "
And
it
stands for
Antichrist, the beast in the Apocalypse, "which ascended from the sea, like unto a pard. " After
the wild beasts the "minute animals"
scribed.
are de-
Such are
crickets,
frogs,
ants,
mice,
The mole, condemned to perpetual blindness and darkness, is an emblem
moles and hedgehogs.
of idolatry. Among the ants enumerated is a kind said to be in Ethiopia, in shape like a dog. This dog-ant "digs up golden sands with its feet and keeps guard over them, lest any one steal the sand." Frogs are briefly described, and then spiritually stigmatized as " demons " and " heretics which cease not their vain and garrulous croaking." Separate chapters follow on serpents, worms^ fishes
EABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
and
birds.
161
Then comes a description of the " miSome of these "birds" are flies. nute birds."
Others are bees, wasps, locusts and ants, each of them having a mystical significance. The bee signifies wisdom, and the locust has various meanings. The fly and the mouse are said to have come originally from Greece.
Flies, moreover, "after they
have been killed in water, will revive within the
space of an hour."
The ninth book
eral,
its
is
devoted to the world in gen-
elements, the various planets, stars, and
constellations,
phere.
and the phenomena of the atmosare fully defined, and the four elements out of which everything has been made.
Atoms
Then
and the two by the
follows a general description of the heavens " doors " of heaven, namely, the east,
the west, because the sun enters by one and leaves
other. Then there are the two cardines, or " turning-points, " north and south. After a chapter
on light and another on
eral,
celestial luminaries in genstars,
there
is
a description of the sun, moon,
and some of the constellations, with one on the morning and another on the evening star. The rest of the book deals with the air, clouds, thunder and lightning, and other "coruscations," the rainbow, fire, frost, coals, ashes, wind, breezes and calm weather, whirlwinds and tempests. The book as a whole is thus astronomical in its first part and in the last part is meteorological. The tenth book is on chronology, or " divisions of time." The eleventh
book, entitled
"On
the Diversity of Waters,"
is
162
ALCUIN
Waters are classified in part and sulphurous, and the
aquatic throughout.
as salt, fresh, bituminous
curative or magical virtues of the
many
springs
and streams are expatiated upon.
ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the
Then comes a
description of various bodies of water, such as the
Red
Sea, the
"abyss," bays and
rents
straits,
lakes and pools, tor-
and whirlpools, with chapters on rain and
(stilla,
;
the two kinds of raindrops
the falling drop,
and
gutta, the fallen drop)
ice,
the book closing with
frost,
explanations of snow,
hail,
dew, mist
are
and deluges.
There
The twelfth and thirteenth books
occupied with a general geography of the earth.
is a chapter on paradise, and another on the " regions of the earth, " which contains detailed topo-
graphical, historical
and other descriptive mention
to
of the various tribes and countries of the earth.
Rabanus then proceeds
islands,
define
and describe
hills,
promontories,
forests.
mountains,
closes the
valleys,
plains
and
He
book with an
account of " various places " of geographical charFirst come " scriptural places, " then " stormy places," followed by the " lairs of wild beasts," and
acter.
then groves and deserts.
places," "ship-building
After these come " devious
places, " " pleasant places, " "
pery places."
shores,
site of
Last of
chasms,
caves,
Erebus and of
sunny places, " " warm places," and lastly "slipall comes his account of "depths," "the pit," the the River Cocytus in the
under world.
The fourteenth book
is
on "public buildings,"
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
but includes private dwellings under
it.
163
It is a
manual of domestic and public architecture of the
ancients, with full spiritual interpretation.
fifteenth
The
book is on the philosophy, poetry and The sixteenth book mythology of the ancients.
be described as a sort of ethnology or sociit
may
ology, as
contains an account of various nations
of men, their languages, their forms of government,
with definitions of
seventeenth book
and military terms. The on " the dust and soil of the earth," that is to say, on minerals and metals. There is first the " soil found in waters," as salt and
civil
is
pitch.
The "common stones"
are next described.
Such are "rock," "cliffs," flint, gypsum, sand and lime. Then come the "distinguished stones," such as jet, asbestus and selenite, the Persian moonstone, whose brightness " is said to wax and wane with the moon." Higher yet come the marbles and ivory, which are assigned separate chapters. After them there is a chapter on precious stones, followed by others on pearls, crystals and glass. The seven metals gold, silver, brass, electrum, tin, lead and
iron
— — conclude the book.
The eighteenth book
ures, numbers,
deals with weights, meas-
and musical and medical terms. The nineteenth is agricultural and botanical, describing in succession the various grains, legumi-
nous plants, vines,
trees,
aromatic herbs and the
describes wars,
common vegetables.
The twentieth
and the different kinds of armor, the various athletic games, ship-building and blacksmithing.
164
ALCUm
twenty-first deals with the domestic arts of
The
house-building, carpentering,
weaving and spin-
ning, and explains fully the costumes of various
nations and the kinds of garments
worn by men
and women.
The twenty-second
details the various
household utensils and tools, beginning with tables, eating and drinking vessels, going on to kitchen
utensils, baskets,
lamps, couches and chairs, and
It falls
ending with garden tools and harness.
What
a mass and a mess
it all is
!
behind
the etymologies of Isidore in point of arrangement
and divisions of the material. It is, moreover, somewhat weakened and diluted. Yet it is not without a general plan. He has, moreover, added
was useful
work much concrete information that no doubt more useful then than Isidore's would have been. Taken with
to Isidore's
for his time
—
the other educational writings of Rabanus,
it
gives
a completeness to his activity as an educational
author which
is
proof of his sagacity
;
for he not
only furnished the
men
of his time with methods
and subjects on the formal side of education, buL met their empty ignorance with a vast collection of the most useful common information that was accessible to him, and so became the teacher of his
time both in regard to the substance of its secular knowledge as well as on the side of method, thus extending his labors far beyond the limits within
which Alcuin had worked.
CHAPTER
VIII
ALCUIN'S LATER INFLUENCE
What
Alcuin had been to the whole of Frankis
land Rabanus was specifically to Germany, and,
though his influence
discernible separately from
the influence of his master, the two soon blended
and carried forward for generations the educaThe strength tional tradition of Western Europe. of the movement was at times centred in one or As a few places and at others dispersed in many. the main stream of learning had flowed from York to Tours and from Tours to Fulda, so it is again visible later as it passes from Fulda to Auxerre, touching Ferrieres, old and new Corbie, Reichenau, St. Gall, and Rheims, one branch of it
finally reaching Paris.
And
yet the stream did
not run unbroken, but with parallel lesser currents
and connecting cross-streams, so that its general widening progress is as diversified as the fan-like sweep of a gulf-stream in the ocean, and can only be rightly measured by taking into account its enIf the current was sometimes parted, tire extent. it was not because the stream did not flow from one source, and if some places were touched only momentarily or left untouched altogether, it was because its volume was not vast enough to over*
165
166
ALCUm
it
spread the whole surface on which
yet the influence of Alcuin
is
flowed.
And
not easy to trace.
There were no new institutions founded on the model of his teaching after his death, and, even in the institutions which had existed, the career of learning was irregular and fluctuating. Schools died out and were again revived in their old places, sometimes to continue for a time in power, sometimes to linger feebly or else to expire finally.
Even the palace
to Erigena,
school of Charles
entered on a
from Alcuin and then undergoing other mutations, never utterly extinct, and yet without leaving behind any continuous record of its doings. Therefore, instead of seeking to gather conclusions from
career of fitful activity, changing
first
the imperfect records of the fluctuating fortunes
of certain places where schools were held, a surer
way
is
to trace Alcuin' s general influence through
the succession of his immediate and remote pupils,
for herein is to be seen the true inner continuity
of education for a century and a half after his
death, if not longer.
some mention of Erigena is in which had crept into the palace school and caused Alcuin such unconBefore doing
this,
place.
The
Irish teaching
cealed anxiety shortly before his death received a
new and
In strong impetus after he was gone. 814 Charles the Great died, and his son Lewis the Pious succeeded him. Soon after Lewis died the
youthful king, Charles the Bald, made John Scotus
Erigena master of the palace school about 845.
ALCUIN'S LATER INFLUENCE
167
Lewis had been careful to keep within the limits laid down by Alcuin, but his successor was of a different temper, and welcomed the acute and witty
representative of the dangerous speculative learning
that was so well fitted to shake unquestioning faith
in tradition.
John brought with him the pro-
scribed Martianus Capella, and extended the influ-
ence of this writer by composing a commentary.
When
appealed to by Hincmar of Eheims to come and help the orthodox faith with his pen, he did not hesitate to quote Greek as well as Latin fathers, and even heathen philosophers whenever convenient, as authorities fit to be cited side by side with
Scripture ; while, as Mr. Mullinger aptly observes,
fill up the measure of his offence, he referred with undisguised approval to the pages of Martianus Capella." ^ The contest had set in between
"to
speculation and tradition, and could no longer be
confined within
the bounds Alcuin would have
approved, and the
new
influence issuing from the
first resisted, after-
teaching of Erigena, though at
wards gradually mingled with the old instruction
given in the monasteries.
But
let
us return to the more prominent of the
later pupils
who
represent the influence of Alcuin,
in the
many
them through Rabanus. Servatus Lupus (805-862) was educated
of
monastery of Ferrieres under Aldrich, the pupil of When Aldrich became archbishop of Alcuin. Sens, he despatched his pupil to Fulda, where he
i
Schools of Charles the Great, p. 186,
168
ALCTJIN
studied under Eabanus, then at the height of his
reputation.
In 836, after a
brilliant career as a
student of letters, as well as in theology, he returned
to Frankland.
Aldrich died soon
after,
and Serabbat of
vatus Lupus succeeded
Ferrieres,
him
in 842 as
where he taught with distinction, gathhim numerous disciples and a considerable library, becoming himself the one purely literary man of his time and cultivating the classical writers to an extent unheard of for centuries. While at Fulda he often repaired to Seligenstadt
ering about
Great, whose friendship he had
to consult Einhard, the biographer of Charles the
made and who then
ruled the abbey of Seligenstadt, where there were
many books.
Einhard's taste for letters and friend-
ship for Servatus promoted his progress in study
and thus supplemented the instruction of Fulda. Haymo, a fellow-pupil with Eabanus at Fulda and one of his companions later under the instruction of Alcuin at Tours, returned from Tours to Fulda, where he taught in the school for some He left Fulda in 841, to become bishop of time. Halberstadt, and died in 853.
first
Walafrid Strabo (born 807), after pursuing his studies as a boy at the school of Eeichenau, on Lake Constance, was sent thence to Fulda to study under Eabanus. From Fulda he returned to
Eeichenau, and, after directing the school of that
abbey for several years, was elected
842.
its
abbat in
He
transplanted thither the studies of Fulda,
and to his repute as a teacher added considerable
ALCUIN'S LATER INFLUENCE
169
accomplishment as a poet. His fame was probably His undisputed merit, greater than his merit. however, consists in his extension of the teaching
of his master.
" Docuit multos "
is
the testimony
of Rabanus himself, in the epitaph he composed
for Walafrid, and indicates that his scholars were numerous enough to call for special mention. Eudolph (800?-866), a monk of Fulda, was both the pupil and biographer of Rabanus, succeeding him in the care of the abbey school. Though of course far inferior to his master, he was thought a man of great learning, and continued the methods of Eabanus, though with less ability. Ermenric, one of his scholars, who afterwards became abbat of EUwangen, testifies, in a work addressed to him, to the profundity of his erudition and his success
as a teacher.
Liutpert, the capable abbat of
New
Corbie,
who
also
died in 853, had also been a
monk
at Fulda, with
Rabanus as the master of
served as the
of
first
his studies.
He
abbat of Hirschau, a community
monks who had gone out from Fulda by the commission of Rabanus. The monk Maginhard was also at Fulda about the same time. Paschasius Ratpert (died 865) retired from the world to the monastery of Corbie, then governed by
Adelhard.
pupils.
He
applied himself to study with such
success as to be selected to instruct his fellow-
Cicero and Terence were favorite writers with him before he had entered the monastery. His activity and diligence were marked. He
170
ALCUIN
accompanied Adelliard to found the abbey of New Corbie in Saxony. He taught many pupils, and among them the younger Adelhard, Anscharius, archbishop of Hamburg, Hildemann and Odo,
each of
In 844, he was Warin, where he died in of old Corbie, himself made abbat His of Beauvais, succeeded him 865. pupil, Odo
as abbat.
whom became bishop of later abbat of New Corbie.
Beauvais,
and
Among
other
monks
of old Corbie
who
deserve
mention was Ratramnus, whose knowledge of the arts was considerable and whose ecclesiastical reading embraced not only the Latin but the Greek
fathers.
He
entered the monastery probably about
its
the time Adelhard became
abbat, and died there,
having passed
all his life as
a simple monk, with-
out aspiring to any preferment.
Among his
friends
were Servatus Lupus and Odo of Beauvais. Another monk of the monastery of New Corbie in Saxony, who may be connected with the influence of Alcuin and Rabanus, was Rembert, who was consecrated a monk by Anscharius, whom he succeeded as archbishop of
Passing notice
Denis,
Hamburg in 856. may be given
died
in 840,
to Hilduin, the fel-
low-pupil of Servatus Lupus and later abbat of St.
who
archbishop of Vieime,
and Ado (800?-875), who had been offered in
youth to the monastery of Ferrieres by his parents, and was educated there under Servatus Lupus. Werembert (died 884) pursued his youthful studies at Fulda under Rabanus Maurus, and then went
ALCUIN'S LATER INFLUENCE
to the important abbey of St. Gall.
171
One of his Eabanus was Otfried of Weissenburg. Werembert was proficient, according to the chroniclers of his time, both in Latin and
fellow-students
under
Greek, the fine
arts,
philosophy, poetry, music,
and sculpture, as well as theology and history. We know little of his life beyond the fact that he was a monk of St. Gall and taught for a long time. Grimaldus, abbat of St. Gall, was educated in the monastery of Reichenau, where his education was touched by the influence of Alcuin and Rabanus
through his friend Ermenric, the
enau,
monk of Reichwho had been a pupil of Walafrid Strabo. Harmot (died 884), a friend and fellow-pupil with
Werembert, virtually governed the abbey of
Gall even during the lifetime of Grimaldus.
to succeed him.
ises
St.
When
Grimaldus died, Harmot was unanimously elected
He was a writer of various treatand also enriched the abbey library greatly. Three monks of St. Gall, closely connected by
warm personal friendship common distinction as
for each
scholars,
reason of their
other and their
were Ratbert, Notker, and Tutilo, who, though
apparently not educated by teachers in the direct
line of succession
from Alcuin and Rabanus, were
yet familiar with the writings of these masters.
Notker may be singled out for separate entered St. Gall as a pupil about 840, and after a while became head of the inner school, the monastery then containing an inner
Of the
three,
mention.
He
school for the
oblati,
who were
offered for mouastio
172
life,
ALCUm
and an outer school for the extemi.
In one of Rabanus with Jerome, Augustine and Chrysostom, and in another work extols the grammar of Alcuin as Among eclipsing even that of Priscian himself. those touched by Notker's influence were Regino, the abbat of Prum, and Robert, bishop of Metz. Turning from St. Gall to Auxerre in Frankland,
his commentaries he ranks the writings of
the influence of Alcuin and Rabanus again appears
as a dominating impulse.
Eric of Auxerre (about 834-881),
when a
boy,
entered the monastery of St. Germain at Auxerre.
After pursuing his early studies at that place he
went to Fulda, where he was instructed by Haymo, and afterwards to Ferrieres, where Servatus Lupus was his master. When the period of his study under Servatus was completed he returned to Auxerre, and was given charge of the monastery school of St. Germain in that place. Among his pupils were Hucbald and the famous Remy of
Auxerre.
Hucbald (died about
930),
the
monk
of
St.
Amand, was regarded as the leading teacher of his time next to Remy. He was a nephew of Milo,
the Christian poet and student of both the liberal
and
Alcuin.
who had studied under a pupil of pursued his earlier studies under the superintendence of his uncle, and then passed from
fine arts,
He
St.
Amand
to
the monastery of St. Germain at
Auxerre, where he completed his course under Eric
in
company with Remy and other pupils of
note.
ALCUTN'S LATEE INFLUENCE
His proficiency in the
173
arts was notable to such an extent that one of his eulogists asserts " he was so
distinguished for his skill in the liberal arts, that
he was compared with the ancient philosophers." The most famous teacher in Frankland, as the ninth century passed away and the tenth opened,
was Remy of Auxerre.
He
early became a
monk
at the abbey of St. Germain, where his teacher
was Eric of Auxerre, the pupil of Haymo and
Servatus Lupus.
of
Among
his fellow-pupils
was,
as has been said, the celebrated Hucbald, the
monk
Amand.
in
On
the death of Eric he succeeded to
the charge of the school.
away
Soon after he was called company with Hucbald by summons of
Fulco, archbishop of Rheims, to re-establish the
schools of that diocese which had fallen into decay.
Eemy taught
both the liberal arts and theology, and
among his auditors was the archbishop himself. The scholars whom Remy taught and their successors continued the school at Rheims well through the tenth century, and among the later pupils of the school were the historian Frodoard, Abbo of
Fleury, and Hildebold and Blidulph, two pupils
of
Remy
himself
who were
to Paris,
influential in establish-
Fulco died, Remy where he established a public, not a monastic school, open to all and free from ecclesiastical rule. Here he taught philosophy and the liberal arts, as well as theology, expounding schools in Lorraine.
When
went from Rheims
ing the treatise
to Augustine,
On
the Categories
then attributed
and teaching the
liberal arts gener-
174
ALCUm
ally witli Martianus Capella as the text-book, thus
finally establishing that hitherto suspected author
in a place of honor.
easily understood,
To render Martianus more
"the
first
he wrote an elaborate comthis school,
mentary.
Out of
cradle
of the University of Paris, "^
came Odo, abbat of
It is doubt-
Cluny, the greatest pupil of Eemy.
less true that
Remy marks
a
new period
in the
revival of studies, and some have considered his
influence comparable to that of Alcuin or Rabanus.
Though
in the
this cannot be shown, it is yet fair to say, words of an old chronicler, that " the studies which had become obsolete for a long time began to flourish again under him, and indeed sprang up, as it were, newly born from his teaching." ^ Among his writings were commentaries on the grammarians, Donatus and Priscian, and a treatise on music, besides his already-mentioned exposition of Martianus
Capella.
Odo of Cluny (880-942) was offered by his parents while yet a child to the monastery of St. Martin
at Tours,
but did not at once become a monk.
After passing his youth in secular
to
life, he returned Tours at the age of nineteen and became a canon His marked taste for Virgil and of St. Martin. the other ancient authors on the side of literature was supplemented by the study of Priscian on the He soon conceived a desire of side of grammar.
studying the arts with more thoroughness and went
1
Histoire LiUraire de la France, VI, p. 100.
2 Histoire
LiUraire de
la
France, VI,
p. 101.
ALCUIN'S LATER rNFLUENCE
from Tours to Paris, where
giving public lectures.
dialectics
176
Remy of Auxerre was Under him Odo studied and music with special attention, and all
the other liberal arts.
he
On returning to Tours on uncertain authority, to have had Soon after he resolved charge of the abbey school. to renounce the world finally and give himself to monastic life. When in his thirtieth year he entered a monastery in Burgundy, taking with him "one hundred books," probably his whole library. After the death of the abbat in 927, Odo was elected to succeed him, and became not only the head of that monastery, but of the more important abbey of Cluny and others. He was influential in bringing about a general monastic reform in Frankland and
is
said,
in connection therewith the establishment of a
large
number
of schools.
school at rieury.
One of these was the Another was revived in the
abbey of Gorz, near Metz, whither many pupils of the school at Rheims went to form a learned monastic community. He also established instruction at the abbey of St. Julian of Tours, where he himself spent some time. His reputation spread rapidly, and he was consulted by the pope and by princes, as Rabanus had been before. He made three journeys to Rome. His death occurred about 942. Such were the men who continued the influence
of Alcuin and Rabanus
tenth century.
down to the middle of the They and their associates sat in the
But they were not
all,
high places of education under the successors of
Charles the Great.
for
176
ALCUIN
history fails to preserve a record of their times
with completeness. It is, therefore, only fair to presume that they embody less than the full influence of the movement started by Alcuin, though
undoubtedly the greatest part of
cession the
it.
In this suc-
names that stand out pre-eminent are
Werembert,
Eric of Auxerre,
those of Servatus Lupus, Walafrid Strabo, Paschasius
Ratpert,
Odo of Cluny. The middle of the tenth century marks the limit of what may be styled the age of Alcuin
Hucbald,
of Auxerre and
in education,
for
Remy
at this point his direct influ-
ence gradually disappears, and yet, amid the devastations
and wars of the age that followed, there
are indications of the continuance of schools traceable to the influences of the preceding age.
The
pupils of
Odo
of Cluny were numerous, and the
school of Rheims, revived by Remy and Hucbald, had the great Gerbert, afterwards Pope Sylvester the Second, for a time as its master. The many pupils of Odo and Gerbert maintained almost unaided the cause of education at the end of the
tenth century.
At
this
point the passing-on of
learning from hand to hand becomes too obscure
to follow, but early in the eleventh century schools
are again discernible in the principal monasteries,
taught by masters
century.
who
could have received the
tradition of learning only
from the men of the last Meanwhile Paris was assuming more and more the character of a metropolis, having become The schools near the fixed residence of royalty.
ALCUm'S LATER INFLUENCE
177
by, including Tours, Bee in Normandy, and Chartres,
became more closely connected with the capital, and with the increase of intellectual speculation and controversy there came a great increase of masters and pupils. The time was ripe for repeating the
prophetic experiment of
of teachers arose.
"
had as
Eemy. A new succession of them was Drogo, who a pupil John the Deaf. John the Deaf, in
One
turn, instructed Roscellinus of Chartres,
and about
Koscellinus clusters that brilliant galaxy of disciples,
Peter of Cluny, Odo of Cambray, William of
Champeaux, and Abelard.^
We
are
now
at the
Old things have passed away and with the opening of the Univeropening of the twelfth century.
sity of Paris the
set in.
new age of
scholasticism has fully
Eulogists of Alcuin have sought to do
him the
surpassing honor of adjudging
tor of the University of Paris
him the
true ances-
and thereby of the
universities of
modem Europe.
The claim
scarcely
it
needs to be more than mentioned before
refuted.
is
Neither on the side of instruction nor of
external organization did he entertain conceptions which would naturally have produced such a result, nor is there any evidence that, without the intellectual awakening that came to Europe under the name of scholasticism, the universities would have been founded, or, if founded, that they would have been capable of the development to which they attained. The awakening impulse came from with1
Monnier, Alcuin
et
Charlemagne, pp. 266-268.
178
out,
ALCUm
through the introduction of the philosophical works of Greek genius in Latin versions made from the intermediary Arabic. It was these that quickened the almost lifeless learning and eduBut, admitting this without cation of Europe. reserve, it yet remains true that the schools of the cathedrals and monasteries, the natural successors and heirs of Alcuin, were the centres of student life and of the teaching tradition. Without the existence of such centres, established as
they had been
for
generations,
it
is
doubtful
whether universities would have arisen. Alcuin' s work was incipient and premonitory, and the outcome was greater than his plan. But his work had first to be done before later developments were possible. It had a distinctive life of
its
own, which seems to have been spent by the end
of the tenth century.
But there are no absolute
Therefore,
breaks in
human
history.
when from
the middle of the tenth century to the middle of
the eleventh the teachers and schools that descend
from him are nearly or wholly lost to view, let it not be assumed that their influence ceased. It was a time of great confusion and of consequent loss of
historic records.
The
little
learning that lingered,
it
however,
is
not to be despised, though
glim-
mered feebly enough in the darkness, for
the only learning.
it
was
it is
When,
therefore,
later,
new and
unrevolutionary teachers appear
the
whom
not possible to connect by express evidence with
men
of the century before^ it is to be presumed
ALCUIN'S LATER INFLUENCE
that they took
179
tradition, which,
carried forward an existing though obscure to us, was plain There was but one tradition available to them. for their use, and that flowed from the schools of the age quickened by Alcuin.
up and
APPENDIX
EDITIONS OF ALCUIN
I.
Froben's Edition is Volumes akd CI OF Mignb's Patrologia Latino.
first
The
edition of Alcuin's collected works
was
edited by Ducliesne and printed at Paris in 1617.
Various scattered treatises, not included in this
were afterwards discovered and printed. In 1777 Froben, the prince-abbat of St. Emmeran at Ratisbon, brought out a far more complete edition than had yet appeared, with an improved text and a vast amount of illustrative and critical matter. This edition of Froben, with the addition of Alcuin's commentary on the Apocalypse, which was brought to light in 1837, is reprinted in volumes C and CI of Migne's Patrologia Latina, published
edition,
at Paris in 1863.
Migne's reprint contains the
works,
in-
most complete
cluding
all
collection of Alcuin's
the chief treatises
known
to have
been
written by him.
It is doubtful if
any of his writ-
ings remain in manuscript to be added to the list
of works printed in Migne, beyond a few minor
and a very considerable number of letters, some of which have been since edited by Jaff^ and
treatises
188
184
ALCUm
Duemmler. The arrangement of Alcuin's writings in Migne is as follows
:
—
I.
Epistles, Vol. C, 135-515.
Of the two hundred and thirty-two letters, two by Charles (Nos. lxxxi and clviii) and the rest are by Alcuin. Fully five-sixths of them are written between 796, when he went to
are written
Tours, and 804,
— the
last eight years of his life.
They may accordingly be taken
final
as containing his
opinions in regard to whatever matters they
treat.
His best
literary style is also in them, the
Latinity having as a rule both more fluency and
propriety than in his other writings.^
Some
of
them
are long
and carefully composed in
of his
set form,
containing
many
favorite epistolary flour-
ishes or deflorationes, while others are in the lightest vein.
The subject-matter
is
by turns
theological,
moral, ecclesiastical, political,
and perHis chief correspondents were Charles the Great and Amo. We have over thirty of his letters to each
didactic,
sonal and well reflects his varied activities.
1
Alcnin's style in general
It is inferior to tliat of
is far removed from pore Latinity. Einhard, the biographer of Charles, who
had fair success in writing after as good a model as Suetonius, whereas nothing of Alcuin's approaches this. His faults, or
rather the apparently ineradicable faults of his time, touch the
elementary questions of syntax. For example, he uses the tenses
incorrectly in subordinate sequences, joins ut in final clauses
indifferently with the indicative or subjunctive, writes a participle
where a
finite
verb
is
in place,
perfect where he ought to use the perfect.
and often employs the pluCompare Monumenta
Alcuiniana, pp. 36 and 38.
EDITIONS OF
of them.
ALCUm
186
His other correspondents include the
Pope, the patriarchs of Jerusalem and of Aquileia, kings in Britain, members of the imperial family
in Frankland,
archbishops, bishops, monasteries,
Of all his writings, the letters and his pupils. have the highest historical value, being of capital
importance for understanding the chief questions
in
Church and State during the
latter half of the
eighth century.
II.
1.
EXEGETICAL WORKS, 515-1155.
Questions and Answers on Genesis, 515-569.
is
This
dedicated to his pupil Sigulf.
It is partly
indebted to Jerome's Qucestiones in Genesin and to
St. Gregory's Moralia.
2.
Enchiridion, or Brief Exposition of Certain
Psalms, 569-639.
These are the seven penitential Psalms, the 118th Psalm, and the fifteen "gradual" Psalms. It is apparently an original composition, and was dedicated to Arno, who had asked Alcuin to compose such a treatise. 3. Commentary on the Song of Solomon, 639(our 119th)
655.
Probably an original composition.
It is
dedi-
cated to no one by name, though in the prefixed
verses a certain juvenis, probably a pupil,
is
ex-
horted to read
added the Epistola ad Daphnin, a short commentary on the
it.
At
the end of
it is
text in Solomon's
Song,
"There are threescore
queens and fourscore concubines."
186
4.
ALCUIN
Commentary on Ecclesiastes, 665-723. In the preface to this commentary, Alcuin says, "I have composed a short commentary on this book out of the works of the holy fathers and partly from the commentary of Jerome." It is dedicated to his pupils, Onias, Candidus, and Nathanael. 5. Interpretations of the Hebrew Names of our
Lord's Progenitors, 723-733.
It is dedicated to Charles and is based on Bede's Homily on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 6. Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, 733-
1007.
Alcuin's principal exegetical work, written about
800 and dedicated to Gisela, the
the daughter, of Charles.
sister,
and Rotrud,
It is based principally
upon Augustine, Ambrose, Gregory and Bede. 7. A Treatise on St. PauVs Epistles to Titus, Philemon, and to the Hebrews, 1007-1083. There is no dedication. The comments on Titus and Philemon are compiled from Jerome's commentaries on those epistles. The comments on Hebrews are also compiled from the Latin version of Chrysostom's commentary on Hebrews made by Mutianus.
8.
A Brief Commentary
on Some Sayings of
St.
Paul, 1083-1086.
This short note may be original in part, though but only in part, for Jerome on Hebrews can be
traced in
9.
it.
Commentary on
the Apocalypse,
1086-1156.
lost,
Part of the treatise appears to be
as the
EDITIONS OP
exposition
ALCUm
in
187
breaks
off
abruptly
chapter xiL
Possibly, however, Alcuin did not complete the
work.
the
It
is
based on Bede's
Commentary on
with supplementary use of the writings of Augustine, Jerome, Victorinus, TychoApocalypse,
nius,
Primasius, and
Ambrose Autpert, one of
Alcuin's contemporaries.
III.
1.
Dogmatic Works,
the Trinity, 9-63.
Vol. CI, 9-303.
On
Written in Tours toward the close of Alcuin's life and dedicated to Charles after he had become emAugustine's treatise On the Holy Trinity peror.
is
Alcuin's chief reliance.
Alcuin's Twenty-Eight
Questions on the
Trinity, dedicated to his pupil
Fridugis, are appended.
2.
On
the Procession
of the Holy Spirit, 63-83.
A
3.
collection of testimonies
from Scripture and
the fathers, dedicated to Charles.
Writings against Felix of Urgel
and Elipandus
of Toledo, 83-303. These contain an elaborate argument, based on
the fathers, exhibiting the Catholic faith as against the Adoptionist heresy.
They show much vigor
and contain Alcuin's ablest work.
IV. LiTUBOICAL
1. 2.
AND MOBAL WOBKS,
439-655.
Book of Sacraments, 445-466.
On
the
Psalms, 465-509.
for the Dead, 509-611.
3.
Offices
4.
On
the Ceremonies
of Baptism, 611-613L
188
ALCUm
They
These four contain the forms of worship, both
general and special, for ecclesiastical service.
are excerpted and arranged from older liturgies.
6.
On
the Virtues
and
Vices, 613-639.
moral treatise dedicated to Count Wido and taken from Augustine.
6.
A
On
the
This
7.
is
also taken
Nature of the Soul, 639-649. from Augustine, and
of Sins, 649-655.
is dedi-
cated to Gundrada (Eulalia).
On
the Confession
A
short letter of exhortation addressed to the
of St. Martin at Tours.
monks
V. Lives of the Saints, 655-723.
1.
2. 3. 4.
The Life of St. Martin of Tours, 657-663. The Life of St. Vedast, 663-681. Life of St. Biquier, 681-690.
Life of St. Willibrord, 690-723.
VI. Poems, 723-847.
Miscellaneous Poems, 723-812. These include prayers, inscriptions for books, metrical histories of the Old and New Testaments, inscriptions for churches and altars, hortatory moral verses, miscellaneous inscriptions, poems to different friends, epitaphs, epigrams, and riddles. The metres employed are almost exclusively the dactylic hexameter or the elegiac. They are not conformed to a strict regard for quantity, but are probably better than most of the poetry of that time in this respect. As poetry, they have little claim to admiration, though there are not wanting
1.
:
EDITIONS OF ALCUIN
189
many
2.
touches of description and imagination that
the Saints of the
are pleasant.
Poem on
Church at York,
812-847.
This poem in heroic verse
ings
is
Alcnin's history of
the Church at York, partly based on Bede's writ-
and partly on
his
own
personal knowledge.
composed shortly before he went to Frankland. It consists of 1657 hexameter verses, modeled to a considerable extent on Virgil and attempting a sustained dignity of style. Its value for the history of Alcuin's connection with
It appears to have been
York
is,
of course, very great.
VII. Didactic Works, 847-1001.
(For an analysis of these didactic writings see the
ter of this volume.)
1.
fifth
chap-
Grammar, 847-901.
Orthography, 901-919.
2.
3. 4. 6.
Dialogue on Rhetoric and the Virtues, 919-949.
Dialectics, 949-975.
Disputation of the Royal and Most Noble Youth Pippin with Albinus the Scholastic, 975-979.
6.
On
the Calculation
of Easter, 979-1001.
VIII.
WOBKS DOUBTFULLY
ASCRIBED TO Al-
CUIN, 1001-1169.
Two
1.
of these are of interest
2.
The Disputation of the Boys, 1097-1143, and The Propositions of Alcuin for Wlietting the Wit
of Youth, 1143-1161.
IX. Spurious Works, 1173-1297.
190
ALCUIN
II.
Monumenta Alcuiniana a Philippo Jq0o
Ediderunt WcUtenbach
Berlin, 1873.
et
Pr<»-
parata.
Duemmler.
pp.
vi 4- 912.
This is the sixth volume in the Bibliotheca Rerum Germanicarum begun under the editorial care of JafEe, who died in 1870. Wattenbach and Duemmler carried on the work interrupted by Jaffe's The volume they have edited untimely death. contains the following documents 1. T?ie Life of Alcuin, composed in the year 829 by an anonymous biographer, who states that he was a pupil of Sigulf. It is of distinct value.
:
—
To
2. 3.
this the following writings of Alcuin are sub:
joined
—
Life of St. WilUbr&rd.
Poem on
Epistles.
the Saints
of the Church at York.
4
The
ing
is
Epistles are edited
by Duemmler, and the
Their editIf only the rest of
other three documents by Wattenbach.
a model in every way.
Alcuin could be as faithfully revised, the service
rendered to learning would indeed be great.
The
text
is
thoroughly purged after a
scientific
method, variant readings are indicated so far as significant, and the body of interpretative matter
and cross-references, printed at the foot of each page, gives abundant illustration of the bearings of the text. The Epistles, which are of such prime
intrinsic importance,
fill
the chief part of the book.
EDITIONS OF ALCUIN
Their number
is
191
largely increased, so that
we may
now
consult two hundred and ninety-two of Al-
cuin's composition, besides fourteen letters written
by others and connected with his correspondence. Their chronology is cleared up and other obscurities are fully explained for the first time. The poem On the Saints of the Church at York is also elucidated by useful notes, and particularly by the references to Bede's Ecclesiastical History printed on
the margin.
TABLE OF DATES
B.C. 384-822 Aristotle. His writings mark the highest development of Greek doctrine respecting education.
100-46 Cicero.
Frequent notices of the
culture,
arts of the
Greeks, which by his time had become the
groundwork of Eoman
116-27 Varro.
His Lihri
Novem DiscipUnarum,
the
thesaurus of information on the arts for
later Latin writers,
8-A.D. 66 Seneca,
Epistle to Lucilius
to
on
liberal studies
and other references draws from Varro.
A.D. 36-96
Quintilian.
Institutio
education.
He
on
Oratoria,
partly
education.
Varro his authority.
n
364-430 Augustine.
Wrote
DiscipUnarum
Libri
shortly after his conversion.
Other writ-
ings with educational bearings are
trina Christiana,
tiones.
De Doc-
De
Ordine, and Betrac-
Varro
is
his great authority.
Before 439 Martianus Capella's book
logice et Mercurice.
De
Nuptiis PMlo-
481-525 Boethius.
taries.
Various translations and commen-
468-669 Cassidorus.
——
De Artibus ac Disciplinis Liberalium Litterarum -636 Isidore. Compiled the Etymologice, the first
encyclopedia.
1A3
IM
TABLE OF DATES
m
About 650 Christian
Irish learning passing into Britain. 669 Theodore of Tarsus comes to Canterbury.
628-690 Benedict Biscop founds Wearmouth and Yarrow, where was represented
of the West.
all
the learning
673-735 Bede, the pupil of Benedict Biscop.
732 Egbert, the friend of Bede, becomes archbishop
of
York and founds the cathedral school there.
IV
About 735 Alcuin
of
bom in Northumbria at
Franks,
742 Charles the Great bom,
the
Martel.
— son
or near York.
of Pepin, king of
and grandson
Charles
Before 745 Alcuin enters the school at York, founded by
archbishop Egbert and conducted by Albert.
766 Egbert dies; bishop
;
Albert succeeds him
Alcuin, in
as arch-
Alcuin becomes master of the school
at York.
visits
company with .^bert,
Frankland and perhaps Rome also. 771 Charles becomes sole king of the Franks. 776 Rabanus Maums bom at Mayence. 780 Alcuin visits Italy, meeting Charles at Pavla.
JElbert dies.
781 Alcuin again visits Italy to obtain from the Pope the pallium for his fellow-pupil, the elder
Eanbald,
bishop of York.
who had succeeded Albert as archAt Parma he meets Charles, who invites him to come and teach at his
court.
782 Alcuin leaves York to become master of the
palace school at Aachen.
787 Charles, returning
home from a
visit to Italy,
TABLE OF DATES
brings into Frankland masters of
196
and
his
arithmetic.
In
tlie
grammar same year he issues
education.
great
is
Capitulary promoting
This
followed by other injunctions to the
same
effect in 788, 789,
and as
late as 802.
790-792 Alcuin revisits Britain.
792 Alcuin returns to Aachen to combat the disturbing heresies of Adoptionism and image-worship.
794 Alcuin participates in the proceedings of the
Council at Frankfort, which condemns Adoptionism and image-worship.
796 Alcuin appointed abbat of Tours. 800 In June Charles visits Alcuin at Tours, accompanied by Queen Liutgard, who dies there. Alcuin goes with Charles to Aachen, where
he engages in public debate with Felix of Urgel, who acknowledges himself overcome and retracts his Adoptionist errors. 800 On Cliristmas day in Rome Charles is crowned Emperor of the Holy Boman Empire by the
Pope.
802 Rabanus Maurus studies under Alcuin at Tours. 804 On May 19th Alcuin dies and is buried at Tours.
The
chief posts of educational advantage are
in possession of his friends or pupils.
Theodulf
is
virtual minister of
education to
Charles the Great,
Amo
archbishop of Salz-
burg, Riculf of Mayence, Rigbod of Treves,
Leidrad of Lyons and Eanbald II of York.
Fridugis succeeds Alcuin as abbat of St. Martin at Tours,
AugUbert is abbat of St. Riquier, Adelhard of Corbie neai Amiens, St. Benedict of Aniane in Languedoc, and Rabanus is in charge of the school at
Sigulf of Ferrieres,
Fulda.
190
TABLE OF DATES
814
On June 28th Charles the Great dies and is buried
at Aachen.
Lewis the Pious succeeds him.
821 Aldrich, a pupU of Alcuin at Tours, succeeds
Sigulf as abbat of Ferrieres.
Adelhard 822 Rabanus becomes abbat of Fulda. founds the monastery of New Corbie in Saxony, becoming
its first
abbat, and continuing
as abbat of old Corbie also.
842 Servatus Lupus, educated under Aldrich at Ferrieres and Rabanus at Fulda, succeeds Aldrich
as abbat of Ferrieres.
Walafrid Strabo, pupil of Rabanus, becomes
abbat of Reichenau.
Rabanus retires from the rule of Fulda. 845 John Scotus Erigena master of the palace schooL 866 Rabanus dies near Mayence. 865 Paschasius Ratpert, pupil of Adelhard and
abbat of old Corbie,
dies.
By
870-880 The influence of Alcuin and Rabanus reaches
St. Gall,
being represented there by
Werem-
bert,
Grimaldus, Notker and others.
He was educated at Fulda under Haymo, the pupil of Alcuin and fellow-student with Rabanus, and at Ferrieres under Servatus Lupus, the pupil of Aldrich. About 900 Remy of Auxerre, educated in company with Hucbald under Eric of Auxerre, opens his
881 Death of Eric of Auxerre.
public school in Paris.
who had been educated Tours and later under Remy at Paris. About 950-1000 Education sustained almost entirely by
942 Death of Odo of Cluny,
at
pupils of
Odo and
Gerbert, for a while master
of the school at
Rheims revived by Remy
9nd Hucbald.
BOOKS ON ALCUIN
The
following
list
contains a selection of books
cles of interest
on Alcuin.
and arti» Those marked with an asterisk
are especially helpful.
Adamson
:
Alcuin, in Leslie
Stephen's Dictionary of
National Biography. Bahrdt: Alcuin der Lehrer Karls des Orossen.
burg, 1861.
Lauen-
* Ceillier
:
Histoire Generale des Auteurs iSacris et UccleParis, 1862.
d* Amiens, Vol. I.
siastiques, Vol. XII.
Corbet : Hagiographie du Diocese
Paris
and Amiens, 1868. * Duemmler Alcuin, in the Allgemeine Deutsche Bio:
graphic.
Dupuy
1876.
:
Alcuin
et VJ^cole
de St. Martin de Tours.
Tours,
Hamelin:
Essai sur la
Vie
et
les
Ouvrages
d^ Alcuin.
Rennes, 1873. * Histoire Literaire de la France, Vols. IV, V, VI.
1866.
Paris,
Laforet
:
sous Charlemagne.
:
Alcuin 'Restaurateur des Sciences en Occident Louvain, 1851.
Lorenz Alcuins Leben. Halle, 1829. * Lorenz The Life of Alcuin, translated from the German by Jane Mary Slee. London, 1837. Meier: Ausgewahlte Schriften von Columban, Alcuin,
:
U.S.V3.,
in Vol. Ill of the Bibliothek der katholischen
Pada-
gogik.
Freiburg im Breisgau, 1890.
:
* Monnier
Alcuin
et
Charlemagne.
Paris, 1864.
197
198
BOOKS ON ALCUIN
:
Monnier
Alcuin
et
son influence
litteraire, religieuse,
d
politique sur les Franks.
Paris, 1853.
* Mullinger : The Schools of Charles the Great.
1877.
London,
Sickel
:
emy of Science,
* Stabbs
raphy.
:
Alcuinstudien, in the Journal of the Vienna AcadVol. LXXIX, pp. 461-650. Vienna, 1876.
Alcuin, in the Dictionary of Christian Bioget
Thery
:
Alcuin (L'JScole
VAcademie Palatines).
Ami-
ens, 1878.
* Werner Alcuin und sein Jahrhundert. Vienna, 1881. Rabanus Mauros Collected Works in Migne's Patrologia
: :
Latina, Vols.
CVH-CXIL
INDEX
AIcTiln,
"
Aachen,
39, 59, 00, 71, 86 $qq.
On the Seven ArU, lOS. DeCurtuet Saltu LutuBt
108, 189.
Abelard, 177.
" "
••
Propositions in ArithiMtic, 108-112, 189.
Abbo,
173.
Academy
of Plato, 48.
Method
of teaching, 45.
Adelhard, 43, 169, 170. Adelhard, The Younger, 170.
Character, 117-123. Pupili, 38, 42-47, 124-128,
166.
"
Ado,
170.
60, 62, 68, 86.
Adoptioniam,
.fidilbert, 77.
"
Connections with
nus, 126-129.
Bab*>
.Albert, 31, 32, 33, 34, 38, 67, 7S.
" AeneodB,"
AlbinuB, 36.
85.
" Later influence, lS6-lTt. AlcuinuB, 35.
Aldhelm,
34.
Albinue (Aleuin), 44, 10«,13T. Aleimua, 35, 140.
Aleuin, Birth, 31.
Aldrich, 124, 167, 161.
AlphabeU,
St.
155, 169. 172,
Amand,
171
"
" " "
"
Touth, 31, 33. Education at York, 81-33.
Vi«it» to Italy, 38, 39.
Ambrose, 34, Amiens, 124.
36, 90.
Angilbert, 43, 124.
Maiter of Palace School,
40-63.
Anglo-Saxon Church, Aniane, 125.
AnschariuB, 170.
28, 29.
" " "
«• ••
Abbat of Tours, 63, 64-88. Death and burial, 87, 88.
Writings in general, 8892, 183-191.
Antony,
44.
Apostolical constitntioaa.
Ml
Apuleius,
18.
Educational writingt, 92116, 189.
Aquila, 44. Arator, 35, 140. Architecture, 7, 21.
Aristotle, 4, 6, 22, 28, 34, S6.
Orammar,
92-102, 189.
Orthography,W2,l03,lB9.
Ehetoric, 104, 105, 189. DiaUctiet, 106, 106, 189.
"
••
Arithmetic,
5, 6, 7, 8 $gq. Arithmetical puzxlea, TL
Disputation qf Boys, 106,
189.
Arno,
43, 54, 124.
44.
Arsenius,
••
JHsputation
106-108. 180.
cf P«pin,
Aries Liberales, 6, 147. Arts (see Seven Liberal Arta).
199
200
INDEX
Canterbury, 29, 30, 7T.
Canticles,
Art$ and DitcipUnes of Liberal
Letters, 23.
Book
of, 07.
Astrology (tee alao Aatronomy),
7, 16, 97.
Capella (see Martianus Capella).
Astronomy,
6, 0,
8 $qq.
Capitulary of 787, 49-51 tqq., 126. Capitularies of 789, 53, 64.
Capitulary of 802, 54.
Atbanasius, 34. Athens, 48.
" Atom,"
164.
Carloman, 125. Caroline Bookt,
62.
Aadulf, 44. AugrusUne,
172, 173.
Caroline Minuscules, 70.
10, 11-18, 20, 24, 34, 3«,
Cassiodorus, 23, 26, 27, 34, 36, 37,
82, 92, 108, 147.
46, 90, 92, 135, 138, 146, 147, 150,
Categories, Treatise on the, 87,
Pseudo-Aagnstine
On
the Cate-
92, 105, 173.
gories, 37, 92, 106, 173.
Cathedral schools, 66, 67.
Chalcidius, 144.
Augustine the monk of Canterbury, 29.
Charlemagne
(see
Charles
the
Auxerre, 166, 172. Ats, 44. ATars, 41.
Great) , Preface.
B
Charles Martel, 41, 86. Charles, son of Charles the Oreat,
43.
Barbarisms in Latin (see "Bnsticity"),102.
Basil, 34.
Charles the Bald, 166.
Cliarles the Oreat, 1, 2, 28, 87, 89,
40, 45, 46, 47 sqq.,
and Table of
Baugulf , 40, 126. Bee, 177. Bede, 29, 30, 34, 36,
150, 157.
Dates.
Chartres, 177.
37, 65, 68, 72,
Chronicles,
Cicero,
Book
of, 79.
86(t), 90, 92, 102, 108, 112, 119,
Chrysostom,
34, 90, 172.
6, 22, 25, 28, 34, 36, 104, 160.
Beecbwood,
St.
125.
Benedict, 125.
Clement, 35, 140. Cluny, 174, 175, 177.
Coelfrith, 29.
Benedict Biscop, 66. Benedictine order, 05, 126.
Bezeleel, 44.
Biscop, Benedict, 20, 66. Blidulph, 173.
Columba, 44. Comminian, 35. Compulsory edaeation,
66b
Boethius, 22, 23, 25, 27, 84, 88, 87,
105, 141, 150.
Computtis, 58, 154. Copying of books, 70-73.
Corbie,
New,
124, 165, 169, 170.
Boissier, 7.
Corbie, Old, 124, 165, 169, 170.
Boniface, 126, 126. Braulio, 26.
Britain, 27, 28, S9.
Cuculus, 38. " Cyclic Disciplinea," 18.
Bucbonia, 126.
Damoetaa,
Calwinus, 38. Candidiu,44.
Dares, 47.
44.
Darid, 44,
79. Stl
INDEX
Delia, 44.
St.
201
Denis, 124, 170. De Doctrina Chrittiana, 12, 138. De Ordine, 16.
X>e Nuptiia
Finger-reckoning, 160 $qq. Flaccus, 83, 86.
PhOologia
7,
et
Mereu-
FlaccuB Albinus, 44. Flenry, 173, 175. Flogging, 76.
Fortunatus, 35, 140. Frankfort, Council of, 00.
Fridugls, 38, 42, 58, 87, 126.
riot, 7, 18, 19-21.
Dialectics, 5, 6,
8 $qq.
Ditciplinarwn JAbri, 16. " Disciplines," Yarro's nine,
17.
7, 8,
Frodoard,
Fulco, 173.
173.
Fronto, 28.
Donatns, 25, 35, 30, 101, 174. Dositheus, 101. Drogo, 177.
Fulda, 49, 03, 04, 126, 128, ISO, 106,
167, 168, 169, 170, 172.
S
Banbald, The Blder, 89. Eanbald, The Younger,
124.
38, 76, 78,
Fulgentius, 84.
O
St.
OaU,
166, 171, 172.
Baster, Calculation of, 82, 46, 82.
Gallic schools, 28, 30, 41.
Egbert, 31, 33, 34, 37, 65.
iyKVKktot
TTaiici'a, 9, 19.
" Bgyptian "
Geography, 33. Geometry, 5, 6,
Gerbert, 176.
7,
8 aqq.
teachings, 82.
EigU, 130. Einhard, 43, 168, 184 note. Elipandus of Toledo, 60.
Gerhoch, 129. St. Germain, 172, 173. Gisela, daughter of Charles,
Glossary, 164.
43, 44.
EUwangen,
169.
Gisela, sister of Charles, 43, 44, 90.
19.
Encycliut diaciplina,
Bntellus, 47, 83.
Gorz, 176.
Gotteschalk, 133.
Episcopal schools, 67. Eric of Auxerre, 172, 173, 176. Brigena, 132, 141, 142, 144, 166, 167.
Grammar,
5, 6, 7,
8 8qq.
Brmenric, 169,
Ethelred, 60.
171.
Gratuitous education, 55, 56, 68, 60. Greek in Alcuin's writings, 90.
Bthelbert (see .<£lbert).
Greek studies, 28, 29. Gregory the Great, 11,
20, 160. 90.
29, 34, 80,
Btymologies of Isidore,
Euboric, 32, 67. Euclid, 25.
Orimaldus, 171. Gundrada, 43, 44.
BulaUa, 44, 47. Butychius, 36.
Sxtemi,
171.
F
" Father of
the Vineyards,"
78.
Hadrian, Pope, 42, 6L HalbersUdt, 127, 108.
Hamburg,
Harmot,
170.
Felix of Ui^el, 60, 86.
Ferrieres, 124, 125, 165, 167, 170,
172.
**
171.
Hatto, 127, ISl.
Haymo,
100.
127, 168,
Vi.
Fiforea " of Onunmar,
Hiptat, 20.
202
Hilary, S4.
INDEX
Liberal Arts (see BeTen Liberal
Hildebold, 178.
ArU).
LQfer Homo, 6. Library at Fulda, 129, 130. Library at Tours, 67, 68, 1S9. Library at York, 34-36, 67. LU>ri CaroUni, 62. Libri Novem Ditciplitiarttin, Lindisfame, 62. Liudger, 38.
Lintgard, 42. 43, 88, 88.
Liutpert, 169.
HUdeman,
Hincmar,
170.
Hilduin, 170.
107.
Hirichau, 169.
Homer, 44. Homilary of Charlec,
64.
6, 7.
Huebald, 172, 173. 170. Haju,41.
Image-worship, 61, OS. Imperial schooU, 1, 9.
Inttitutet of Sacred Letteri, 2S.
Lombards,
42.
Lorraine, 173.
Lorscb, 127.
InstUutio Oratorio,
Ireland, 27.
9.
Lucan,
35, 36.
Lullns the Jew, 39.
77, 82, 121, 185.
Irene, 61.
TxUb learning,
iMiah,
67, 68.
Lunar epact, 154. Lupus Serratoa (see Serratna Lapus).
Isidore, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 36, 37, 68,
82, 92, 101, 104, 106, 150, 156, 157,
Lyons, 124.
U
MaehariuB, 44. Magenfrid, 44. Maginhard, 109.
164.
Jerome,
172.
34, 36, 4«, 84, 166, 166, 167,
Marcomanni,
the Deaf, 177.
156.
7, 17,
John
Martianus Capella,
St.
18-22, 25^
Jonathan, 80. Joseph, 38. Josephns, 142.
St. Julian of
28, 30, 37, 82, 142, 167, 174.
Martin of Tours,
63, 64, 87, 88,
174.
St.
Tours, 176.
Maur,
127.
Julias, 44.
Maums
(see
Rabanus Maoma).
Jnrispmdenee, 32. JnveacQS, 34, 140.
Mayence,
124, 125, 126, 131.
Medicine, 7, 8, 21. Medieval periods, Menalcas, 45.
Mercia, 59.
1, 2.
]
LactantiuB, 10, 36, 157.
Mercury and Philology,
Merovingians, 41, 70. Metz, 172, 175.
Mllo, 172, 173.
19.
Langnedoe,
136.
Leidrad, 54, 124. Leo, 34, 85, 86.
Lerins, 28, 20.
Monastic schools,
58, 67.
" LeTite," 34. Lewis the Plvu,
1«T.
Monte Casaino,
43,
86,
126.
166,
Mlinster, 38.
Moaic,
6, 6, 7,
8 $qq.
INDEX
Phoeaa, 36. Pindar, 44.
aoi
KathanMl.
44.
03.
Plato. 142, 143, 144, 147.
Vice, Conncil of, 61,
Platonic disciplines, 48.
Nicomachua, 25, 101. Northambrid, 21, 58, M, M, Notce Caiarii, 166. Notkcr, 101, in, 173.
Platonic philoeophcra, 14f.
66, T7.
Plautus, 28.
Play at school,
Poetry, 46.
76.
mioH, 57, 170. Odo of BeauTkia, 170. Odo of Cambray, 177. Odo of Clany, 174, 17«.
Ofia, 59, 60. T4, 76.
" Point," 154. Pompeiaa the grammarian, H^ |^ Pompeiua Trogna, 34.
Porphyry,
22.
Proeparamettta, 149.
Primary education,
68.
Priacian, 35, 36, 101, 16», 111;
VL
OBiM,88.
Orleans, 80, 86, 124. Oroiiua, 34.
ProbuB, S6. "Prodigal Son," S8,lUw Proaper, 36.
Ostentum,
Oaolf, 38.
154.
Prum, 172. Pttudodoetom, It.
Pythagoras, 146.
Otfriad 9t WaiiMntait, ia0» 171.
Palace School, 41 sqq., 166. " Paradigmatic " writing, 81.
Quadrivium,
22, 28,
J
QnintiUan, 8, », 10.
" Fkraphraatical "
writing.
SL
Babanna Haonu, lt6-164, 166, W,
160, 170.
•• «•
Paria, 86, 166, 173, 176, 176. Pari!, University of, 174, 177.
Pariah achoola, 66, 56, 67.
Puna, 39.
Parta of
Sdncational
writings,
Grammar,
100.
lai
Paachaaioa Ratpert, 160, 178.
St. Patrick, 28.
•99-
Baganhard,
64.
88.
Paolinna, 35, 140.
Batbert, 171.
PauUnoa of Aqnileia,
Paria, 39.
Ratgar, IM, UT. Ratpert (aee PaaehMtoa
lU^Wt).
Pepin, aoQ of Charlaa tbe GtmM,
43,106.
Batranmoa,
170.
Perfect numbers, 24, 143, 144.
Periods in Middle Ages, Peter of Cluny, 177.
Peter of Piaa, 39.
Petertberg, 181, 16C.
1, i.
Regino. 172. Reichenaa, 166, 168, ITL Rembert, 170. Remy of Auxerra, 172, ITS, IM,
176, 176, 177.
Philoaophy a Uberal ut, 6. ruioiogy.ia.
16, IT.
Retractationa, 16. Rbeima, 166, 178. 176, 176. Bhatorie, 6, 6, 7, 8 agg.
204
Bienlf, 4S. 54, 134.
INDEX
Stnrm, 126.
Sylvester II,
ITfll
Bigbod,
Bt.
U4. Biqnier, Ui.
86,
Bymeon,
38.
BlUcbl. 7. 16. Robert of Mets, ITI. BoMellinua, 177. Botrud, 43, 90. Bndolpb. 126, 180, lOB.
••Siu«iett]r,»71,10l.
T
Terence, 160.
Tertnllian, 10, 14, 16.
Theodore of Tarans, 29, 86. Theodulf 42, 43, 64, 66, 67,
,
68,
n,
79, 80, 81, 121, 124.
B
8aitU$ of the
18», 190.
Theology,
46.
Tbyrsis, 45.
Chunk at
Tork, tl,
Timcetu of Plato,
Tobias,
144.
Book
of, 86.
Balzbnrg, 68, 124.
Bftmnel, 127, 128 note, 129.
Toors,
63, 64, 66, 67, 68, 70, 71, T2,
74, 77, 78, 80, 82, 85, 86, 87, 88,
Sapieniia, 70.
Saracens, 41, 42, 81.
102, 114, 124, 126. 126, 127, 128,
130.
Saiura, 19. Satura Doctor, 26. Baxona, 41. BcboIaaticUm, 132, ITT. Schokuticut, S4, TOL Bebool at Tork, 76. ScoteUut, 82.
Scriptorlnm, 70, 72, TS.
Scriptorea, 134, 137, 188.
Treves, 85, 124. TritbemiuB, 149.
Trivium, 23, 26, 106. Tudesque, 103, 164, IM, liC Tnronie City, 67.
TntiIo,171.
Secondary education,
Sednlioa, 34, 140.
UniTtnal primary
adncatioiit
68.
Hk
SeligentUdt, 168.
Seneca,
8, 9, 10.
Sena, 124, 167.
Varro,
6, T. 8, It, IT, 19,
«. ttk n»
Servatus Lnpna, 130, 167, 168, 170,
172, 176.
144,146.
Vetolns, 44.
VictorinoB, 34.
Servina, 36.
Seven Liberal Art*, 4-87,
48, 97, 139, 146, 147.
•'
Vienne, 170.
82, 87,
BeTen Pillara " of X^adoni,
79,96.
80.
VUlage schools, 66, 66, " Vineyards," 78, 79.
VirgU,
8T, it.
24,
28, 36, 86, 46, 84, 86,
1T4
" Seven WaterpoU,"
Signlf, 88, 42, 86, 124.
Solomon,
44, 47.
Sopbiatical reasoning, lOt,
Wala,
43.
Borek, 80. State education,
§t«tlTli,
Walafrid Strabo, 180, 164, 168, 160^
U,
171, 176.
86|8A>
\KrBldramn, 38.
INDEX
Wario,
ITO.
206
WearmoQtb, 29. Werembert, 170, 171, ITflL Wido, 116. William of Champeanx, 177.
" Wine-cellara,"
79, 80.
Yarrow, 29. York, 31-38.
58, 59, SO,
M,
67,
M,
74, 76, 76, 87, 124, 186.
Z
Zabdi, 79, 80.
ZacbaJriaa,
WiUo, 38, 42, 68.
Pope, Uiu
On
flADOation
Great
Educators
nm\u m^m^
q/Ediua&H.
Bvmr
" Jofi IB th« rifbt timt to meet the ne«dt of a Urge number of teachers who we CMtinc about to find eomethinE fundamental and satisfying on the theocy ot
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The price paid for the sample copy will be returned, or a free copy intlm*dy U^on receipt of an order for ten or more copies for Introduction. C»rr*spcnitne« is invited, and will be cheerfully answered, CeUaUgnt Hit' A«»»
_______________
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— —
—
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"
THB GREAT EDUCAT0R5.
NOTICES OF THE SERIES.
Adminibly conceived in a truly philosophic spirit and executed witb unutoal (ridU. It is rare to find books on pedagogy at once so instructive and so interestI hope to read them ail, which is more than I can say oi any other iof. series. " Wiluam Preston Johnston, Julane University. ' The Scribners are rendering an important service to the cause of educa**
...
'
' ' Journal of Education. tion in the production of the Great Educators Series. ' ' We have not too many series devoted to the history and the theory of education, and the one represented at the present moment by the two volumes before ns promises to take tux important place— a leading place— amongst the few we have." London EduccUumal Times.
' '
ARISTOTLE.
of ancient pedagogy is Professor Davidson's subject, the course of education being traced up to Aristotle, an account of whose life and system forms, of course, the main portion of the book, and down from that great teacher, as well as philosopher, through the decline civilization. An appendix discusses The of ancient Seven Liberal Arts, and paves the way for the next work in chronological sequence, Professor on Alcuin. The close relations between Greek West's, education and Greek social and political life are kept constantly in view by Professor special and attractive feature of the Davidson. very work is the citation, chiefly in English translation, of passages from original sources expressing the spirit of the different theories described.
The whole
—
—
'
'
—
A
' ' I very glad to see this excellent contribution to the history of educa> tion. Professor Davidson's work is admirable. His topic is one of the most T. Harris, U. S. Commissiontr profitable in the entire history of culture.
am
I
"—W.
of Education.
' '
'
Aristotle
'
is delightful
the
field of
Greek Education so well.
this level in the later
works
' '
than that you
may
do so.
—
in English that covers will find it very hard to maintijn I can wish you nothing better G. Stanley Hall, Clark University.
reading.
I
know nothing
Tou
of
the series, but
ALCUIN.
to develop the story of educational institntloni in Europe from the beginning of the influence of Qiristianity on education to the origin of the Universities and the first beginnings of the modem careful analysis is made of the effects of Greek and movement. Roman thought on the educational theory and practice of the early Christian, and their great system of schools, and its results are studied with care and in detail. The personality of Alcuin enters largely into the story, because of his dominating influence in the movemenL
Professor
West aims
A
"Die von Ihnen mir freundlichst zugeschickte Schrift des Herm Professor ich mit lebhaftem Interesse gelesen und bin ilberrascht davon in Word America eine so eingehende Beschaltigung mit unserer Vorzeit Kenntniss der Literature iiber diesen Gegenstand zu ausgebreitete eine und so finden. Es sind mir wohl Einzelbeiten begegnet ein denen ich etwas auszuAuffassung und Darstellung aber kaim ich nur als sehr die ganze setzenfand, wohl gelungen und zutreffend bezeichnen." Professor Wattenbach, Berlin. Alcuin seems to me to combine carefult I take pleasure in saying that cholarly investigation with popularity, and condensation with interest or M* till, in a truly admirable way. "— Proussor G. T. Laod, qf VaU.
West uber Alcuin habe
'
'
'
'
THB GREAT EDUCATORS
ABELARD.
M. Compayre, the well-known French educationist, has prepared in this volume an account of the origin of the great European Universities that is at once the most scientific and the most interesting in the English
Naturally the University of Paris is the central figure in the language. and the details of its early organization and influence are fully account Its connection with the other great universities of the Middle given. Ages and with modern university movement is clearly pointed out. Abelard, whose system of teaching and disputation was one of the earliest signs of the rising universities, is the typical figure of the movement; and M. Compayre has given a sketch of his character and work, from an entirely new point of view, that is most instructive.
;
" 'Abelard' may fairly be called the founder of university education in Sarope. and we have in this volume a description of his work and a careful analysis of his character. As the founder of the great Paris University in the thirteenth century the importance of his work can hardly be overestimated. The chapter devoted to Abelard himself is an intensely interesting one, and the other chapters are of marked value, devoted as they are to the origin and early history of universities. . . . The volume is a notable educational work. Button Daily Travtltr.
"—
LOYOLA.
a critical and authoritative statement of the educational principles and method adopted in the Society of Jesus, of which the author is a distinguished member. The first part is a sketch, biographical and historical, of the dominant and directing personality of Ignatius, the Founder of the order, and his comrades, and of the establishment and
is
This work
early administrations of the Society. In the second an elaborate analysis of the system of studies is given, beginning with an account of Aquaviva and the Ratio Studiorum, and considering, under the general heading of "the formation of the master," courses of literature and philosophy, of divinity and allied sciences, repetition, disputation, and dictation; and nnder that of "formation of the scholar," symmetrj' of the courses pursued, the prelection, classic literatures, school management and control, <jxaminations and graduation, grades and courses.
" This volume on St. Ignatius of ' Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits,' by the Rev. Thomas Hughes, will probably be welcomed bv others besides those specially interested in the theories and methods of education. Written by a member of the Jesuit Society, it comes to us with author!^, and resents a complete iuid well - arranged survey of the work of educational S evelopment canted oat by Ignatius and his followers." —i^M<iim SaiunUty Xtvitvt.
FROEBSL.
Friedrich Froebel stands for the movement known both in Eturope and in this country as the New Education, more completely than any other single name. The kindergarten movement, and the whole development of modern methods of teaching, have been largely stimulated by, if not entirely based upon, his philosophical exposition of education. It is not believed that any other account of Froebel and his work is so complete and exhaustive, as the author has for many years been a student of Froebel's principles and methods not only in books, but also in actual Mr. Bowen is a frequent examiner of kinpractice in the kindergarten
—
—
THE OREAT EDUCATORS
^ergartens, of the children in them, and of students who are trained to lit kindergarten teachers. ' No one, in England or America, is fitted to give a more sympathetic or lucid Mr. Bowen's book Interpretation oi Froebel than Mr. Courthope Bo wen. will be a most important addition to any library, and no student of Froebel eas afford to do witbooc it. ' ' Kate Douglas Wiggin, New York City.
'
...
HERBART.
In this book. President De Garmo has given, for the first time in the English language, a systematic analysis of the Herbartian theory of education, which is now so much studied and discussed in Great Britain and the United States, as well as in Germany. Not only does the volume contain an exposition of the theory as expounded by Herbart himself, but it traces in detail the development of that theory and the additions to it made by such distinguished names as Ziller, Story, Frick, Rein, and the American School of Herbartians. Especially valuable will be found Dr. De Garmo's careful and systematic exposition of the problems that centre around the concentration and correlation of studies. These problems are generally acknowledged to be the most pressing and important at present before the teachers of the country. Some one has said there can be no great need without the means of supplying such need, and no sooner did the fraternity realize its need of a knowledge of the essentials of Herbart than Dr. De Garmo's excellent work on Herbart and the Herbartians,' by Scribner's Sons of New York, appeared, a book which, costing but a dollar, gives all that the teacher really needs, and gives it with devout loyalty and sensible discrimination. It is the work of a believer, a devotee, an enthusiast, but it is the masterpiece of the writer who has not forgotten what he owes to his reputation as a scholar in his devotion to liia master." Journal of Education.
' '
'
THE ARNOLDS.
book heretofore published concerning one or both of the Arnolds has accomplished the task performed in the present instance by Sir Joshua Fitch. A long-time colleague of Matthew Arnold in the British
Educational Department, the author leaving biography aside has, with nnusual skill, written a succinct and fascinating account of the important services rendered to the educational interests of Great Britain by the Master of Rugby and his famous son. The varied and successful efforts of the latter in behalf of a better secondary education during his long official career of thirty-five years as Inspector of Training Schools, no less than the notable effect produced at Rugby by the inspiring example of Thomas Arnold's high-minded character and enthusiastic scholarship, Whatever in the teaching of both seems likely are admirably presented. to prove of permanent value has been judiciously selected by the author from the mass of their writings, and incorporated in the present volume. The American educational public, which cannot fail to acknowledge a lasting debt of gratitude to the Arnolds, father and son, will certainly welcome this sympathetic exposition of their influence and opinions. " The book is opportune, for the Amoldian tradition, though widely ditfose' in America, is not well based on accurate knowledge and is pretty muchiA the air. Dr. Fitch seems the fittest person by reason of his spiritual sympathy with the father and his personal association with the son, to sketch in this brief way the two most typical modem English educators. And he has done his work
llffa
No
—
—
almost ideally well within his limitations of purpose. . . . The two anas in these oases as thecvwere. '—Educational Rtvina. New York.
'
18G56
A
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ALCUIN
lYO^b
Edited by
NICHOLAS MUKBAY BUTLER
ALCUIN
Unjv. of California
Withdrawn
AXD
THE EISE OF THE OHEISTIAN
SCHOOLS
ANDREW FLEMING WEST
^PaonsiOB
vs Pbihcbton
Columi
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1912
COPTRIGHT, 1892, BT
CHARLES SCRIBNER^S SONS
HENRY MORSE STEPHE««
PKEFACE
It
is
the purpose of this book to present a
sketch" of Alcuin in his relations to education,
with prefatory and supplementary matter
cient
suffi-
to
indicate his
antecedents
and
also
his
connections with later times.
is
The account given
based mainly on a study of Alcuin's writings,
far as possible, to let Alcuin
and attempts, so
speak for himself, rather than to theorize about
him.
Such books about Alcuin and his pupils
found serviceable have also be^n
In submission to the present
as have been
freely consulted.
custom of historical writers, and the authority of
Shakspeare, I use the
place of Charlemagne.
name Charles the Great
in
ANDBEW
Pkincbton Collbok,
September, 1892.
F.
WEST.
S09755
CONTENTS
9Mn
Lttroduotobt
OBAP.
1
L The Sbvbn
XL
Libbsai. Abts
.
•
Alcxtik the Scholab at
Yobk
...
•
•
4
28
40
m.
rV.
Alottin the Masteb of the Falaob School
Alcuin the Abbat op Toubs
Alcuin's Educational Wbitings
Alcuin's Chaeactbb
.
V.
...
.
.64
89
117
VL
Vn. Babantts Maubus and Alcuin's Othbb Pupils
YIIL Alcuin's Lateb Influence
.
124
•
.
166
APPENDIX
Editions of Alouin
Table of Dates Books on Alcuin
....••
fil
188 193
197
INDEX
199
ALOUIN
AMD
THE EISE OP THE CHEISTIAN SCHOOLS
INTKODUCTORY
At
the mid-point between ancient and
modem
history stands the
commanding
figure of Charles
The centuries of the Middle Ages which precede him record the decadence and final
the Great.
extinction of ancient institutions, while the nearly
equal number of centuries which follow up to the
time of the Renaissance and Reformation record
the preparation for modern history.
isher of the old order of things
Thus, as
fin-
and beginner of
the new, he
is
the central secular personage in
call the
that vast stretch of time between antiquity and
the
modem world, which we
Middle Ages.
The
fortunes of education during these fifteen
centuries faU in well with the character of the
periods which
mark the
successive phases of civili-
zation in the West.
Before Charles there are two
periods, the one extending through the first four
centuries of the Christian era and characterized
by
the decline of the imperial
Roman
schools of learn1
1
'
:
:•
:
\/
ALCUIN
;
uig-and'the concurrent rise of Christianity
and tlie
other embracing nearly four centuries more, a time
of confusion, of barbarian inroads, of the dying out of schools, and of prevalent intellectual darkness.
century, a third period,
first
Then begins, under Charles at the end of the eighth marked at its outset by the
general establishment of education in the Middle Ages, an establishment lasting, however, but a
generation or two, and falling into ruin as a
new
barbarism overran Europe. This period lasted well into the eleventh century, when a fourth and last
medieval period began with a second restoration
of learning under the influence of scholasticism,
founding the universities, but itself finally decaying and coming to an end at the Renaissance, that
third and final revival of learning which
radical
was so and powerful as to become the beginning
modem age in education. These are the three revivals of learning in the West, each in turn stronger than its predecessor. But the first one under Charles and Alcuin, though the weakest, is yet of vital importance as a first stage in the evolution of modern education. Narrow and technical as was the instruction given,
of our
and brief as was the duration of the institutions founded, it still remains true that Charles was the
first
monarch
in the history of Europe, if not of the
world, to attempt an establishment of universal gratuitous primary education as well as of higher
schools.
izing sagacity, a
Moreover, as the result of Alcuin's organbody of men devoted to teaohing
INTRODUCTORY
S
as well as learning was created, giving some degree of continuity to education
down
to the founding of
the universities and so sheltering studies in various monasteries and cathedrals that some of the greater
schools thus kept alive, or offshoots from them,
afterwards became natural receptacles for the
university
life
new
of the next age.
CHAPTER
I
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
The seven liberal arts which embraced the studies
constituting the curriculum of school education in
the Middle Ages were an inheritance from classical
antiquity.
Their origin
is
to be sought in
Greek
as the
education.
Thus
Aristotle in his Politics^ defines
(eXevdepioi eirur-njfuu)
"the liberal sciences"
aspire not after
proper subjects of instruction for free
men who
what
is
immediately practical or
useful, but after intellectual
in general,
separately.
and moral excellence and mentions several of these studies
By
his time the educational doctrine of
the Greeks had become highly developed and exhibited the ideals towards
which the best Greek minds
endeavored to direct their educational practice. We are not to suppose that by the terms " liberal
and "liberal sciences " they meant either the whole of human knowledge or even the whole of liberal culture, for although the terms are not always employed in a uniform sense, yet they have a proper sense which must be held clearly in mind, if we would avoid confusion. Their proper meaning is this, the circle of disciplinary school
arts," "liberal studies "
—
1
Vlll,
1.
For a
full notice of
the liberal arts in Greek
writers see the Appendix to Davidson's Aristotle in this seriei.
4
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
studies
6
which minister
to the general education of
youth, preparatory to the higher liberal studies,
which are compendiously called philosophy. The distinction between the liberal arts and philosophy thus contains in germ the distinction between what we now mean by gymnasial and university educaIt is of course true that the liberal arts were tion. not always spoken of consistently, and that the practice of Greek writers may be compared in general with the varying modern use of the word " education," but it is no less true that to the Greeks the liberal arts primarily meant the circle of school In fact they are often identical with school studies.
education itself, so that the saying of Pythagoras, " Education must come before philosophy," ^ meant
to the Greeks that training in the liberal arts
must
precede the higher culture.
the goal of the earlier studies,
Philosophy
is
also, as
not infrequently
the
styled a liberal art, sometimes
liberal art.
only
truly
Thus Aristotle
is liberal,
is
affirms,
it
"It alone of
the sciences
its
because
exists solely for
own
sake and
not to be pursued for any
extraneous advantage." *
which came to be regarded as liberal grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, music, arithIt is not clearly metic, geometry, and astronomy. known when each of these began to be considered as a school study, or how many of them were commonly so pursued, or that they were the only
studies
arts were
1
The
Hpo
<j>iKo<TO<t)iai
waiStia, BtobaBU8| Serftl.
I, 2,
XT J.
s Metaphysig?,
6
liberal
arts.
ALCUIN
The Greeks did not formulate an num-
unalterably fixed body of studies, seven in
ber.
seven arts nor any mention of seven number of the liberal arts is to be found in the Greek writers. However, there was an order in which they were pursued, and the first three,
as the
No list of
grammar, rhetoric, and dialectics, were preparatory studies which were generally pursued in the order
The other four disciplines usually came and it is probable that only a portion of those who had completed their grammar, rhetoric, and dialectics passed on to the music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy, and that only a portion of those who so passed onward studied all the four It is clear, however, that the Greeks latter arts. consider acquaintance with the liberal came to arts as a general education, and the only general
stated.
later,
education.
By
the time of Cicero (b.c. 106-^3) the artes
Uberales
had passed over to Eome and become the groundwork of the education of the Roman liber
Cicero's references to the arts
instructive, furnishing as they
homo, or gentleman.
are abundant
and
do ample evidence of the familiarity of educated Romans of the late Republic with the studies
of the Greeks.
But
it
was not the writings of
to the
Cicero that saved the liberal arts for the Middle
Ages.
For
this
we must look
monumental
work, now
(b.c.
lost,
of his learned contemporary Varro
It is fortunate indeed that such a
116-27).
writer, in his Libri
Novem Disdplinarum, gave a
:
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
full
7
account of the arts which had passed over from
Greek into Eoman education. His list of "disciplines," as worked out by Eitschl,^ is the following grammar, dialectics, rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic,
astrology, music, medicine, architecture.
Astrolfirst
ogy of course answers to astronomy, and the
seven studies in his
1
list
are consequently the well-
Opuscula, in, 371.
Etude sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de M. T. Varron argues against the certainty of Ritschl's identification
Boissier in his of the " nine disciplines," holding that only six are clearly
out.
made
In his treatise on the Libri
Novem Disdplinarum
of Varro,
now
published in the third volume of his Opuscula, Ritschl
gathered and co-ordinated with marvelous acuteness the
scattered
many
fragment and ancient
notices connected with Varro's
work, and concludes: that he had identified each one of the " nine disciplines " with reasonable certainty and their order of presentation in Varro with a fair degree of probability. Boissier saya Ritschl afterwards doubted whether he had sustained his identification of all the nine with sufficient proof. I have been unable to find the passage where Ritschl avows such a change of conviction.
Fortunately,
it is
rate array of evidence in order to find out
disciplines" were, since there
is
not necessary to re-examine Ritschl's elabowhat Varro's " nine
case.
which covers the whole
tianus Capella's
at hand a simple piece of proof The account of the arts in MarDe Nuptiis PhilologisB et Mercuria is demon-
strably a popularized account of the studies described in Varro's
Libri
Novem
Disciplinarum.
Varro's work dealt with nine
studies, one for each of his nine books.
Martianus likewise
has but nine studies, and these are precisely the nine worked out by Ritschl as Varro's " nine disciplines." But even if only six on Ritschl's list were proved to belong to Varro's nine, yet, since these six are likewise six of the nine of Martianus, the presumption that the unidentified three of Varro
would match the remaining three of Martianus
is
very strong.
:
B
ALCUIN
arts of the Greeks, but medicine
It is very plain that
known
not in
and
archi-
tecture are added.
Varro had
mind any
it
limitation of the arts to seven,
would not be safe to assert he meant that all his "nine disciplines" were liberal arts. Perhaps he did, but more likely all he meant to represent by the " nine disciplines " was the studies generally, whether liberal or professional, which the Eomans had inherited from the Greeks. Passing on to the time of the early Empire, we
and yet
may
trace the course of the liberal arts in the writ-
65) and were well acquainted with the writings of Varro and refer to him as their authority. In Seneca's famous Epistle to I/ucilius ^ on liberal studies, five of the arts are enumerated and described in the following order grammar, and then music, geometry, arithmetic, and astronomy. This, though incomplete, yet corresponds, so far as it goes, with Varro and the Greeks. It is also true that he recognizes in his very next letter^ the distinction between rhetoric and dialectics but it would be a mistake to suppose from this that he recognized these seven as all the liberal arts,
ings of the younger
Seneca
(b.c. 8-a.d.
Quintilian (a.d. 35-96), both of
whom
;
or that he consciously recognized any unalterably
fixed
list.
medicine as a liberal
I JSpist.
Indeed he speaks in another letter ' of art, and may have followed
Morale Lib.
Xm, Ep.
Ill, 3-15.
Ed. Haase, Leipsic,
1886.
«
Epist.
Moral, Lib. XIV, Ep.
I,
17.
» fpiat. Moral., Lib.
XV, Ep. lU, a
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
Varro in doing
Quintilian, in
so.
Shortly after Seneca comes
arts are
whose writings the
more
strictly co-ordinated as a
complete course of school
instruction.
He
speaks in his Institutes of Oratory
of the departments of study which need to be pursued " in order that that circle of instruction, which
the Greeks call cyKwAios
iraihua,
may be completed." ^
He
also mentions as such studies
music, and geometry,
arithmetic,
grammar, rhetoric, making the geometry include geometry, and astronomy. These six
might perhaps be regarded as really seven if we suppose that Quintilian combined dialectics with rhetoric, as was sometimes done but in any event it is clear that he, like Seneca, had not formulated an exclusive list of seven or any other number. Yet it is also clear that as with the Greeks, so with the Eomans, grammar remained the inevitable first study, with rhetoric and probably dialectics immediately following, and that the foiarfold division into arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy
;
held
its
own
as a natural distribution for the suc-
ceeding studies.
The Roman
civilization,
and with
it
the educa-
tion established in the imperial schools, passed on
to its decline, partly
partly
from interior moral decay, by external barbarian assault, and even more irrevocably through the supplanting power of the new ideals introduced by Christianity. We are chiefly concerned with the last of these, and more particularly here with the twofold attitude
^ Institutio
Oratoria,
I,
cap. 10,
1.
Ritschl, Opuscula, III, 354.
10
ALCUIN
assumed by the early Church of the West towards the arts. The first position was one of antagonism. Thus Tertullian proscribes pagan learning as both apparently a most harsh ineffectual and immoral, judgment. But if we keep in and indefensible of great a number of the view the utter vileness
—
so-called professors or teachers of the arts in the
time of the Empire, a fact easily proven from
the writings of Seneca and Quintilian, and the gross
immoralities of pagan religion which were a natural development of so
much
it
of the mythology
will be seen that
that tainted their literature,
an
antagonistic attitude to certain phases of pagan cul-
ture
was inevitable from the
first
on the part of the
patriarchs of phi-
Church, and this might easily pass into a proscription of the liberal arts.
"The
losophy," says Tertullian, "are the patriarchs of
heresy."
He
also decries
philosophy and rhetoric."
them as "hucksters of Lactantius says, " They
do not edify but destroy our lives," and even Augustine calls them " croaking frogs." " Refrain
from all the writings of the heathen," is the language of the Apostolical Constitutions,^ " for what hast thou to do with strange discourses, laws, or
which in truth turn aside from the are weak in understanding ? For if thou wilt explore history, thou hast the Books of the Kings or seekest thou for words of wisdom and eloquence, thou hast the Prophets, Job, and
false prophets,
faith those
who
;
1
Quoted and translated in Mulllnger's Schools of Charles tJU
<?r««(,p.8.
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
the
11
Book
of Proverbs, wherein thou shalt find a
more perfect knowledge of all eloquence and wisdom, for they are the voice of the Lord, the only wise God. Or dost thou long for tuneful strains, thou hast the Psalms or to explore the origin of
;
things, thou hast the
Book
of Genesis
;
or for cus-
toms and observances, thou hast the excellent law of the Lord God. Wherefore abstain scrupulously from all strange and devilish books." Such is an
authoritative utterance of the early church, so that
we need feel no
great doctors.
surprise at finding
it
echoed by her
Was
it
not Augustine
who made
is
famous the saying, Indocti cesium rapiunt, "It
the ignorant
who
take the kingdom of
Heaven";
and did not Gregoiy the Great assert that he would blush to have Holy Scripture subjected to the rules
grammar ? But though antagonism was the first position of the Church, and a necessary position in her first encounter with paganism, there were influential voices raised on the other side, and this harsh opinion was gradually modified, so that by the fourth and fifth centuries it was superseded by a better view. The liberal arts and their sequel, the ancient philosophy, came to be regarded with qualified approval, and despite his other utterances which embody the earlier attitude of the Church, it was again the great Augustine (a.d.
of
354-430), the literary as well as the theological
leader of
Western Christendom
influential in
in his time,
who
was most
committing the Ghuich to
12
ALCUIN
a recognition of the arts and philosophy as suitable This was accomplished nay, even on the ground that they were useful necessary, for the understanding of the Scriptures.
studies for the Christian.
—
His views are best
Christian Instruction,
set forth in his treatise.
On
which was completed in his seventy-second year, and may therefore be assumed to represent his final judgment. Nothing freer or more comprehensive has been said even under the
light of later Christianity than the
maxim he has
there recorded, Quisquis bonus verusque Christianus
est,
Domini
veritatem, "
sui esse intelligat, ubicumque invenerit Let every good and true Christian know
that truth is the truth of his Lord and Master, where-
soever it be found." ^ Such words foreshadow the whole revolution in the ideals of education introduced by Christianity. In the same treatise he draws a beautiful though fanciful parallel between Israel and the Egyptians at the time of the Exodus, and the
similar situation of the Christians of his time, emerg-
ing from the spiritual bondage of paganism. " As the land of Egypt," he writes, " contained idols for
Israel to abominate
and grievous burdens for them
to
flee,
yet there were also vessels and ornaments
of gold and silver, which Israel going out of
Egypt
took with them to devote to a better use, not of their own right, but at the command of God, the
Egyptians themselves unwittingly furnishing what
they themselves had been putting to an evil use. So all the teachings of the heathen contain vain
^
De Doctrina
Christiana, U, cap. 17.
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
Ih
and idolatrous inventions and grievous burdens ot unnecessary labor, and every one of us as we go out from heathendom, under Christ our Moses, ought to abominate the one and flee the other.
Yet there are likewise the
liberal disciplines, well
suited to the service of the truth,
and containing,
This
moreover, very useful moral precepts and truths
regarding the worship of the one true God.
is
which they have not created themselves, but have extracted from certain
their
gold
and
silver,
ores, as
it
were, of
precious metal, wheresoever
they found them scattered by the hand of divine providence. So, also, they have raiment, the hu-
man
and customs wherewith they are These we need for our life here below, and should appropriate and turn them to a better use. For what else than this have many of the good and faithful done ? Behold how that most persuasive doctor and blessed martyr Cyprian came out of Egypt, laden with what great spoil of their How much did not gold and silver and raiment Lactantius take and Victorinus, and Optatus, and Hilary, not to speak of those now living or of the innumerable Greek fathers. Moses also, that most faithful servant of God, did so long ago, for is it not written that he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians ? " ^ Spoil the Egyptians Take their gold and silver and raiment. Take all the truths of the pagan schools and use them in the service of Christ. Henceforth the Christian if
institutions
clothed.
!
!
!
^
De Doctrina
Chr-utiana,
II,
cap. 40.
:
14
ALCUm
is
not shut up to rejecting or taking secular culture
as a whole, but he
course,
to select the best.
A middle
is
which
is
not a mere compromise,
thus
opened up, avoiding the extreme of TertuUian in proscribing secular learning and the other later extreme of the Benaissance in taking all, whether
base or excellent.
Let us not be misled into supposing that Augustine thought the arts or philosophy were to be
studied purely for their
he reasons that
Israel
if
was
great,
Not so, for Egypt taken by yet the treasures of Solomon in
sake.
own
—
the spoil of
Jerusalem were far greater. Accordingly he writes "As was the amount of gold and silver and raiment taken by Israel out of Egypt when compared with the treasures they amassed afterwards in Jerusalem, treasures at their greatest when Solomon was king, such is all knowledge, useful though it be, which is gathered from the books of the heathen, when compared with the knowledge of the divine Scriptures. For whatever man has spoken elsewhere, if
it
be harmful,
it is
here condemned
;
if it
be use-
ful, it is herein contained."^ The Scriptures are the final test of the " harmful " and the " useful."
They are even more, of human learning is
is this
for
they embrace whatever
Inconsistent indeed
useful.
position with Augustine's other statements
to study the
and with his injunction
in the liberal arts, if
it
good things
be true that these things
It sounds like
II,
are already in the Scriptures.
1 J)e
a
Doctrina Christiana,
cap.
41
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
late
16
echo of Tertullian.
But
let it
be remembered
tbat Augustine represents in himself the history
of the differing successive attitudes of the
towards pagan
of his writings
culture,
is
Church and that the general tenor
decidedly in favor of studying
the arts and philosophy, though not solely or
principally for themselves, but as ancillary to the
supreme spiritual teachings of the Bible. Augustine's connections with the liberal arts are even more definite. He had himseK been a teacher of rhetoric before his conversion, and a writer on
seven of
the arts.
The
record of this, in his
Retractations, which was written shortly before 427, is of distinct importance, particularly from the fact that he was well acquainted with the writ-
ings of Varro, to
greatest authority.
whom he frequently refers as his He states that while at 'Milan
title
awaiting baptism, he endeavored to write Discvpli-
narum lAhri (almost the
of Varro's old work),
and that he finished only a book on grammar and part of another on music .^ After his baptism he returned to Africa and continued what he had begun at Milan. Besides the two treatises mentioned, he says that he wrote de oliis vero quinque discipUnis similiter inchoatis, that is, finished books he had begun upon five other disciplines, in addition to grammar and music. It has been held by many with Kitschl' that this means "on the other five disciplines," and that Augustine consequently recognizes
1 Retractationes, I, cap. 6.
*
OpwciUa Fhilologica,
III, 364.
1«
ALCUIN
arts.
seven as the total number of the liberal
it is
But
means
such cannot be proved from this passage, because
possible that de aliis quinque disciplinis
five other disciplines."
"on
It is clear, however,
that Augustine enumerates seven arts which he
recognizes as liberal, and that he nowhere else recognizes more.^
His
list is as
follows
:
Gram-
mar and
the
tics,
music, as above stated, and besides them following " five other disciplines " dialec:
rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic,
phy.
and philosoElsewhere^ he speaks of pursuing memo-
ratum discipUnarum ordinem, a previously cited "order of the disciplines," and in still another passage' of having studied in his youth omnes libros artium quas liberales vacant, " all the books Taking all his of the so-called liberal arts."
stateihents in one view it Augustine listed only seven
becomes
plain that
liberal arts,
and that
he refers to a fixed order among them and to his His list is remarkacquaintance with each one.
able in one respect, for astronomy in
its
is
lacking and
place
we find philosophy, a substitution apparto recognize less than seven in
It is
ently due to Augustine's deep abhorrence of astrol1
Nor does he seem
eral account of the arts.
true that in another
any genwork {De
Ordine, lib. II), when giving a general description though not making out a formal list, he names only six, grammar, rhet-
—
oric, dialectics, music,
geometry, astronomy.
seven, for he treats of arithmetic, or
geometry.
Thus
in this
But he describes "numbers," under the account he deals with the same disci-
plines as in the Retractations, except that his favorite philoso-
phy
is
replaced by the traditional astronomy.
II, 16.
*J)e Ordine,
« Con/essiones, IV, cap. 16, 30.
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
M
ogy as an impious art and his love for philosophy, which he puts in its place as the last and presumably the highest study.
But why should Augustine have only seven arts Certainly not by accident. He exercised some choice in the matter, as appears from
in his list ?
his substituting philosophy for astronomy.
Varro
had written on nine disciplines, and though Augustine refers to him repeatedly as an authority, he
does not adhere to Varro's number.
obscure.
It
The point
is
may
be Augustine
knew
of the seven
arts in Martianus Capella's book, or that,
the arts were settling
his time,^
though body of seven by the limitation to seven was not definitely
down
to a
before his mind.
The important
is
point, however, in
connection with Augustine,
not the number of
the
arts.
His position and influence may now be summarized with clearness. His settled view, attained after long meditation, was one of favorable regard toward the arts, principally because they ministered to
the better understanding of distinctively Christian
truths.
Expressions of a different tenor are indeed
to be found here
and there in
his writings.
At one
time he seems to go back to the idea that secular studies are useless, though not to be proscribed, and at another to advance fearlessly to the position
that all truth everywhere
is to
be reverenced, in or
out of the Scriptures, thus mirroring in his
1 Possibly throagh an Alexaudriau influence, which UBable to trace at present.
own
are
we
IS
ALcum
experience the early rigid attitude of the Church
at the one extreme as well as the enlightened atti-
tude of the distant future Eeformation at the other,
His was so commanding that from his time onward the Church was decisively committed to the toleration and even the encouragement of secuinfluence
lar studies.
but finally resting midway between them.
And yet Augustine does not stand alone in accredMiddle Ages. Another influence, potent, though at first reluctantly acknowledged by Christian writers, came from Martianus Capella of Carthage, who was either contemporary with Augustine or else somewhat earlier.* He wrote an allegorical treatise entitled The Marriage of Philology and Mercury, in a turgid, fantastical manner which had been fastened on the Latinity of North Africa by Apuleius. The book
iting the liberal arts to the Christian
is
consequently not only tiresome in
is
its
rhetorical
luxuriance, but
often so involved and obscure
to
that
we
are puzzled
determine whether the
author's peculiarities in any given instance are due
to his affected style or to
an intention to be enigis
matic.
The
object of the treatise, however,
quite
1 The date of Martianus Capella was commonly suppose to be either in the 5th or 6th century of our era, until the appearance of Eyssenhardt's edition in 1866. He proves that Martianus
must have been written before the destruction of Carthage by the Vandals in 439, but is unable to show how long before. Parker argues that the book was written before Byzantium was called Constantinople, that is, before the year 330
Capella's book
(English HUtorictU Review, July, 1890, pp. 4M-416).
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
clear.
19
liberal
way the Martianus himself appears to have been a self-taught man. He set
It
was to describe
in a fanciful
disciplines of Varro.
before
him the writing
of his book as a task for
winter nights, and adopted the medley of prose and
verse which had gained a place in literature through
the influence of Varro's medleys, constructed in this
fashion and
known
as Saturce, as a proper literary
receptacle for his rambling but copious account of
the liberal arts.
So he tells us figuratively
at the
end
of his book that he has exhibited his literary goddess Satura, "prattling
away
as she heaps things
learned and unlearned together, mingling things
sacred with things profane, huddling together both
the muses and the gods, and
polished tale."
liberal
ircuScui)
^
representing the
cyclic disciplines babbling unlearnedly in
an un-
The " cyclic
encycUus
disciplines " are the
disciplina
(ey/cwXtos
arts,
the
of classical
antiquity,
interlocutors in his allegory.
and they become The subject of his
marriage
symbol-
treatise, consisting of nine books, is the
of Mercury with Philology, the daughter of Wis-
dom.
Mercury, as the inventor of
letters,
izes the arts of
Greece of heaven-born origin, while
his bride, Philology, is an earth-born
maiden repre-
senting school learning.
After the consent of Jupi-
ter has been given to this union of
1
god and mortal,
Loquax docta
indoctis adgerans
Fandis tacenda farcinat, immiscnit
Masas deosque,
disciplinas cyclicas
Oariire agresti cruda finxit plasmate.
— Book ix (closing lines).
20
ALCXTIN
the nuptials are celebrated in the shining Milky
Way with
The
first
the liberal arts as the seven bridesmaids.
two books are occupied with the wedding
treat,
and the other seven
liberal
each in turn, of the seven
arts
in
the persons of the bridesmaids.
occupies the third book, dialectics
fifth,
Grammar thus
the fourth, rhetoric the
geometry the
sixth,
arithmetic the seventh, astronomy the eighth and
music the ninth. The list is significant, for it tallies with that of Augustine, except so far as concerns and astronomy, a discrepancy of no importance, it differs from Varro in expressly omitting medicine and architecture, which had completed his "nine disciplines." As there is no evidence of any connection between the writings of Augustine and Martianus
—
—
Capella, and good reason to believe that Augustine would not regard his purely pagan account with
respect, especially as it contained contemptuous,
though concealed flings at Christian doctrines, their agreement in keeping to seven liberal arts is remarkable and goes far toward proving that the arts were commonly supposed to be seven by or before the time of Augustine. Oddly enough, Martianus Capella never thinks of attaching any importance to the fact that they were seven, though he enlarges on the mystical character of the Heptas
in other connections. Yet his none the less intentional, for medicine and architecture, which were very probably, if not certainly, two of Varro's nine, are expressly rejected
or septenary
number ^
limitation
is
ipp. 262 and 265, Eyssenhardt's edition, 1866.
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
as bridesmaids.
21
After six of the bridesmaids have
appeared before Jupiter and discoursed at length, the Father of the Gods turns and asks Apollo how
many more
waiting.
of these excellent maidens are yet in
tells
Apollo
architecture are at
him that both medicine and hand, but adds, "Inasmuch as
they are concerned with perishable earthly things, and have nothing in common with what is ethereal
and
divine, it will be quite
fitting that
they be
re-
rejected with disdain."
Accordingly they are
fused entrance, and music, the seventh bridesmaid and "only remaining" heaven-bom art, is given
audience.^
The meaning
eral studies.
is
plain.
Medicine and architecelevate the
ture are excluded because they are not purely lib-
They do not
mind
to the
contemplation of abstract truth, but are of the
earth, earthy,
and consequently
unfit for the
com-
pany of the
Martianus
celestials.
They
are of the useful
and
professional arts.
is
This limitation of the arts by
therefore based on their character as
liberal studies,
not due to reverence for that number.
1
though the limitation to seven was His arts
.
" Superum pater
.
. .
.
.
superesset
exquirit.
qui probandarum (=artium) nomerus Cui Delius Medicinam suggerit Archi'
tectonicamque in praeparatis adsistere, sed quoaiam his mortalium rerum cura terrenorumque soUertia est nee cum aethere quicquam habfent superisque confine, non incongrue, si fastidio respnuntur'" (p. 332). After further talk Jupiter answers,
"Nunc
igitur
(= Musicam)
prsecellentissimam feminarum Harmonicam qux Mercurialium tola superest audiamus " (p. 336,
Eyssenhardt's edition).
8S
ALCUIN
in the eyes of Christian writers were unbaptized
pagans, but the fact that they were seven did
much towards
securing
them a Christian
standing.
After Martianus Capella, whose book was very
slow in getting in with the company of Christian writings and consequently of exercising its strong
influence
which came much
later,
the next
name
is
of importance in the fortunes of the liberal arts
that of the philosopher Boethius (481-525).
is
His
the last
name
in the history of ancient philos-
ophy, and apart from a few expressions and terms
which bear a Christian aspect, he must be accounted a pagan in his culture. His importance for the history of education is due to his translations of Greek works which became text-books to a large degree for the whole of the Middle Ages. He composed versions or adaptations of treatises on arithmetic,
geometry, the logic of Aristotle, besides other writings of Aristotle and of Porphyry,
and several
commentaries of his own, principally on Aristotle and Cicero. This slender equipment was a chief
part of what was saved to the early schools of the
Middle Ages from Greek antiquity. Boethius has no general account of the seven arts, nor is there to be found in his writings any indication that he thought the number noteworthy in this connection. His significance lies in the fact that his writings served as text-books and as a source for other writers on the arts to draw from. It is perhaps worth noticing, however, that he is apleft
parently the
first to
employ the term qitadrivium
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
as the
S8
name
for the
combined study of music,
It is also
arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy.
word trivium, as a formal designation for grammar, rhetoric, and dialectics, goes back to his time. At any rate, the substantial distinction between the trivium as an elementary course of study in language and discourse as opposed to
possible that the
the quadrivium, the later study of the sciences,
emerges in his writings. A contemporary and friend of Boethius, and like him, of noble family, was the Eoman senator
Cassiodorus (468-569),
who
retired in his old age
from the turmoil of public life and the increasing barbarism of Italy under its Gothic rulers, taking shelter in his monastery in Calabria, where he spent his remaining years in the service of Christian learning. He attempted to stimulate
the monks to unflagging study, particularly to the
copying of manuscripts, and was in this
ential in extending the practice into
way
influ-
most of the
monastic orders of Latin Christendom. Besides rendering this important service to learning, he wrote
assiduously both on Christian and secular subjects.
One
of his books
is
entitled
On
the
Arts and Disci-
plines of Liberal Letters.
He had
previously writ-
ten his book
On
the
Institutes
of Sacred Letters
thinks
it fit,
in thirty-three chapters, one chapter for each year
of our Lord's earthly
fore, that his
life.
He
there-
book on the
liberal arts should also
be divided into parts according to a suitable number.
Seven
is,
of course, the one
number that
will
24
ALCUIN
Accordingly he opens his preface by sayis now time that we should hasten through
match.
ing
:
" It
the text of the book
we have
in
hand imder
Let
seven other
Scriptures
titles suitable to secular letters.
us understand plainly that whensoever the Holy
mean
to set forth anything as entire
and complete, as they frequently do, it is comprehended under that number, even as David says, Seven times in the day have I spoken praises unto thee,' and Solomon, 'Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars.' " ^ Here is a new reinforcement coming from Scripture itself. The old plea of Augustine on their behalf was that the arts helped towards understanding the Scriptures, and although the fact that they were seven might naturally give them favor in his eyes, yet he had not thought to build an argument thereon. Cassiodorus uses this consideration as though it were a new one in connection with the arts, and however slight it may seem to us, it became forcible enough to the mys'
tical-number worshippers of medieval times.
arts are seven
The
scriptural
But this is the and only seven. number for what is complete and per-
1 " Nunc tempus est ut aliis septem titulis saecnlarinm litterarum praesentis libri (textum) percurrere debeamus. Sciendum est plane quoniam frequenter quidquid continuum atque perpetuum Scriptura Sanctavult intelligi, sub isto numero comprehendit sicut dicit David Septies in die laudem dixi
. . . ;
:
'
tibi
'
.
.
ezcidit
1150).
Et Salomon Sapientia sedificavit sibi domum, colunmas septem' " (Migne, Patrologia Latina, LXX,
.
:
'
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
feet,
25
and therefore the Christian must hold them
list
in due honor.
is that found in Martianus he is under evident obligations. But they are unacknowledged, and Martianus himself is only referred to in a contemptuous manner as a Satura Doctor, or undignified medleywriter. This much, however, may be assumed,
His
of the arts
Capella, to
whom
that Cassiodorus adhered to the
list
of the arts
he found in Martianus Capella, much as he must have abominated his undisguised paganism and pretentiously swollen style, and then proceeded to write
a compend suitable for Christian use.
is
His account
short and in no
way
is
original or forcible.
The
chapter on grammar
an abridgment of Donatus, the greatest of the Roman grammarians. His rhetoric is based to a considerable extent on Cicero. His dialectics come in part from Varro but principally from Boethius. It is really Boethius made
easy for beginners.
oric
and
dialectics,
he
These three, grammar, rhetcalls arts, and the next four
are called disciplines.
Of
his four disciplines, his
arithmetic comes from Nicomachus and Boethius,
music from various sources, his geometry mainly from Varro and from the little of Euclid that was translated by Boethius, and lastly his astronomy from Boethius. Rudimentary and brief as his book is, it is not to be despised, for it was not so much the content as the spirit of his labor which had
his
value.
It helped to fasten the tradition of learnlife
ing on the meuastery and school
of centuries.
20
ALCTHN
Thus
far the liberal arts have been saved either
in treatises or compends, but the next writer
who
gives
in
them shelter accords them a small comer what was the first encyclopedia. This work is
Spain (died 636)
.
the so-called Etymologies of Isidore, bishop of Seville in
By
his time barbarism
had wellnigh extinguished learning, and it is to his labors that we owe the vast collection of excerpts, gathered from patristic and classical writers, which served as a thesaurus of all knowledge for cenThough his huge book is of course utterly turies. without original value and so full of absurdities and puerilities that it may be considered as an index of the retrogression in learning that had set in, it is still true that Isidore was the most
widely informed
of Saragossa,
man
of his time.
Braulio, bishop
by whose persistent entreaty he was induced to write the Etymologies, was next to him the most learned man in Spain, and testifies that Isidore was " distinguished in his knowledge of the trivium^ and perfectly acquainted with the qxiadrivium," and that God had raised him up in " these last times " to save the world from utter " rusticity." The liberal arts are briefly described in his book and their proper number is expressly recognized
as
seven: " DisciplinoB liberalium artium septem sunt" ^ His account of them is copied bodily from Cassiodorus. A century and a half later Alcuin
admiringly regarded him as the lumen Hispanias
1
The earliest instance
three liberal arts.
I
first
can find of trivium as a name for the * EtymologuB, 1, 2.
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
.*/
and as the one cui nihil Hispania darius hdbuit,^ expressions which reveal only too plainly how great must have been the darkness in which an Isidore could seem brilliant. Such is the genealogy of the patriarchs of the liberal arts, and of these Boethius, Cassiodorus and Isidore became the acknowledged authorities in the schools, while Martianus Capella, though at first unacknowledged, was also influential. The learning they handed over did not attain to the
dignity of a systematic exhibit of the learning
of the ancients, but contained at best a general
outline of its
school studies imperfectly filled in
modified.
It cannot
and often
faultily
be too
plainly insisted on that
what they gave to the Middle Ages was enclosed in a very few books and
that this scanty store constituted practically the
whole substance of instruction up to the eighth
century, not being completely displaced until the
Renaissance.
Isidore stands last in the
list,
clos-
ing the development of Christian school learning
in the midst of a barbarism that
was extinguishing
his time
not only learning but civilized society in Western
Europe.
The darkness that followed
was profound and almost universal. Eome itself had become barbarian, and only in distant Britain and Ireland was the lamp of learning kept lighted, not to shine again on the Continent until brought thither by the hand of
for over a century
Alcuin.
1
Alcuin, Ep. 115, p. 477, Ja£F^.
CHAPTER
II
ALCUIN THE 8CH0LAB AT YORK
A.D. 736-782
The
following Isidore
darkness on the Continent during the age up to the time of Charles the
lectual
Great coincides in time with the brightest inteleminence of the Anglo-Saxon Church,
where learning found a shelter until it returned Christianity had entered to Europe with Alcuin. Britain by many doors and at many times, carrying with it the precious treasure of the liberal arts. From the great monastery at Lerins, ofE the Mediterranean shore of Gaul, St. Patrick had brought religion to Ireland, and other monks
following
him introduced not only the sacred
but also the secular studies then flourishing in Both in the pagan schools the Gallic schools.
of the dying
cessors
lingered,
in
Empire and in their Christian sucGaul the study of Greek and there was a directer and wider acsouthern
quaintance with classical antiquity than elsewhere.
and Pronto were known and studied, and the dangerous Martianus Capella was the favorite handbook of the The quick and speculative Irish mind liberal arts.
Aristotle, Cicero, Virgil, Plautus, Varro,
28
ALCUIN THE SCHOLAR AT YOUK
was
easily touched
29
ings
and responded to such teachinto contact with them, and thus from the start developed in isolation from the stiffening and contracting influences which came to dominate the Latin Church on the Continent gener-
when brought
ally.
This learning of Ireland passed in turn in the
seventh century into Northumbria, the Anglo-Saxon
kingdom of North Britain. To the south, Gregory the Great had sent the zealous monk Augustine in 696 to evangelize Britain from Canterbury as a centre. To the same place Theodore of Tarsus came in 669, soon to become its first archbishop. This strict and capable ecclesiastic succeeded in impressing on the Anglo-Saxon Church the Eoman discipline and organization to a marked degree. But
though a determined promoter of papal influence, he was yet a Greek by birth, and under his auspices
the study of Greek was introduced in Canterbury.
To the north the great twin monastery of Wearmouth and Yarrow had been founded and enriched with books from Lerins and other continental monasteries,
and even from
its
Kome
itself.
Benedict
its
Biscop (628-690),
abbat.
noble founder, also became
His greatest pupil was Bede (673-735), who at the age of seven began his education under Benedict and continued it under his successor, Coelfrith. He there "enjoyed advantages which could not perhaps have been found anywhere else
in
Europe
at the time
;
perfect access to all the
existing sources of learning in the West,
else could
he acquire at once the
Irish, the
Nowhere Eoman,
80
ALCUIN
the Gallican^ and the Canterbury learning ; the accu-
mulated stores of books which Benedict had bought at Rome and at Vienne or the disciplinary instruc;
drawn from the monasteries on the Continent, well as from the Irish missionaries." * All that as he was capable of receiving from these several schools seems to have been grafted upon his simple and primitive Anglo-Saxon nature and made his own. His pursuit of learning was ardent and unreWhatever of his time was not taken up mitting. in the round of monastic duties he devoted to his
tion
he writes, " I spent in that same monastery, giving my whole attention to meditating on the Scriptures, and in the intervals bestudies.
life,"
" All
my
tween the observances of regular discipline and the daily duty of singing in the church, I made it my
delight either to be learning or teaching or writing."
But Bede, though
mind, he
is
receptive,
was conservative. Not-
withstanding his allegorizing and inquiring habit of
yet above
all
marked by that loyalty and
ancient simplicity of disposition which so strongly
characterized the true Anglo-Saxon.
He could therewas
fore allegorize without being wildly erratic, as
Martianus Capella, so that he was in no danger from that source. More than this, his circumspect regard
for the church tradition put such a
pagan writer
Consehis
quite out of the reach of his acceptance.
quently Bede never makes use of him, but follows
after the feebler
and safer
Isidore,
who was
^Dictionary of Christian Biography, article on Bede by Bishop Stubbg.
ALCUIN THE SCHOLAR AT YORK
31
favorite authority for all matters connected with
the liberal
to a scribe
arts.
Even on his death-bed he dictated some portions of Isidore's writings, giv-
ing as his reasons therefor, "I will not have my pupils read a falsehood or labor without profit after
my
death." One of his closest friends was Egbert, who became archbishop of York in 732 and founded
there the cathedral school, enriching
library.
it
with a great
His rule of thirty-four years was of invaluiElbert (Ethel
able service to the cause of learning.
bert), his scholasticus or
master of the school, carried
its
out his generous policy and afterwards succeeded
him
as archbishop.
In this school they trained
greatest pupil, Alcuin.
family.
Alcuin was descended from a noble Northumbrian The date and place of his birth are not
definitely known, but it is very probable that he was born about 735 in or near York, where his early While yet a little child he entered life was passed. the cathedral school founded by Egbert, continuing there as a scholar and afterward as master In company until his departure for Frankland. with the other young nobles who composed the school he was first taught to read, write and mem-
orize the Latin Psalms, then indoctrinated in the
rudiments of grammar and other liberal
arts,
and
afterwards in the knowledge of Holy Scripture.
He
the
has
left
on record in his poem On
the Saints of
Church at York a characteristic description of the studies pursued under .Albert. His verses read;
;
;
82
ALCUm
There the Euboric ^ scholars felt the rule Of Master .Mbert, teaching in the schooL Their thirsty hearts to gladden well he knew With doctrine's stream and learning's heavenly dew«
To some he made
the
grammar understood
And poured on
The
While those
others rhetoric's copious flood.
rules of jurisprudence these rehearse,
recite in high Aonian verse, Or play Castalia's flutes in cadence sweet And mount Parnassus on swift lyric feet.
Anon the master turns their gaze on high To view the travailing sun and moon, the sky
In order turning with
its
planets seven,
And starry
The storms
hosts that keep the law of heaven.
at sea, the earthquake's shock, the race
Of men and beasts and flying fowl they trace Or to the laws of numbers bend their mind And search till Easter's annual day they find.
Then,
last
and
of
The depths
best, he opened up to view Holy Scripture, Old and New.
Was any And
Of
Then him
youth in studies well approved. the master cherished, taught and loved thus the double knowledge he conferred
liberal studies
and the Holy Word.*
Under the
fanciful coloring of this sketch, several
of the liberal arts
may
be discerned.
Grammar
and rhetoric are there at the start. We may also pick out two others, arithmetic, or "numbers," and astronomy. "Jurisprudence" means canon law.
1
*De
Alcnin often calls York the civitas Euhorica. Sanctis Eboracensia EcclesisB, vv. 1430-14B3.
ALCUIN THE SCHOLAR AT YORK
The
" storms "
33
and " earthquakes," as well as the men and beasts, belong to Isidore's " geographical " information. This was commonly included under geometry, as pertaining to the description of the earth. " Aonian verse," " Castalia's flutes" and "Parnassus" are poetry in the sense of metrical exercises, and perhaps included some imitation of classical diction. Possibly music is also faintly hinted at in " Castalia's flutes." But though two of the liberal arts, music and geometry, are not clearly specified and dialectics is not named,
natural history of
we may be sure that
Alcuin's picture
is
not intended
drawn characterization of the studies at York, and it is fair to assume that the others were at least known, if not cultivated.
to present a list but a freely
A
lively gratitude
for
the learning he there
received, but above all for the faithfid instruction
in Christian virtue
sonally instilled, remained with
life.
which Egbert and Albert perhim to the end of Long after he had gone to Frankland he
" It
is
wrote affectionately to the brethren of the school
at
York
:
ye who cherished the
frail
years
of
my
infancy with a mother's affection, endured
with pious patience the wanton time of my boyhood, conducted me by the discipline of fatherly correction Unto the perfect age of manhood and strengthened me with the instruction of sacred
learning.
What
can I say more, except to implore
that the goodness of the
King
eternal
may reward
your good deeds
to
me, his servant, with the glory
of eternal blessedness ? "
Alcuin soon became ths
34
ALCTJIN
most eminent pnpil of the school and an assistant
master to Albert.
On
the death of Egbert in 766,
when Albert succeeded to the archbishopric, Alcuin in turn appears to have succeeded him as master of the school. At any rate, he was then ordained a
deacon, or "levite," and held the office of scholasticus for
some time
thereafter.
Thus he might
he was given
naturally expect to succeed eventually to the archbishopric.
On
JElbert's death in 780
charge of the cathedral library, then the most
famous in Britain and one of the most famous in Christendom. He has left on record in one of his poems a statement of the principal books which a sort of metrical catalogue. were there stored, English as foUows: It runs in
—
There shalt thou find the volumes that contain All of the ancient fathers who remain There all the Latin writers make their home
;
With those that glorious Greece transferred to Rome, The Hebrews draw from their celestial stream,
—
And Africa is bright with
learning's beam.
Here shines what Jerome, Ambrose, Hilary thought, Or Athanasius and Augustine wrought.
Orosius, Leo, Gregory the Great, Near Basil and Fulgentius coruscate. Grave Cassiodorus and John Chrysostom Next Master Bede and learned Aldhelm come, While Victorinus and Boethius stand With Pliny and Pompeius close at hand.
Wise
Aristotle looks
on TuUy
near.
Sedolius and Juvencus next appear.
ALCUIN THE SCHOLAR AT YORK
Then come
Albinus,! Clement, Prosper too,
36
Paulinos and Arator.
Lactantius, Fortunatus.
Next we view Ranged in line
Virgilius Maro, Statins, Lucan, shine.
Donatus, Priscian, Probus, Phocas, start The roll of masters in grammatic art.
Eutychius, Servius, Pompey, each extend
The
list.
Comminian brings
find,
it
to
an end.
There shalt thou
O
reader,
many more
Famed
"Whose
for their style, the masters of old lore,
many volumes
singly to rehearse
Were
far too tedious for our present verse.'
The
large
list
of authors does not of course fulfil the
expectations roused by Alcuin's glowing promise of " all the Latin writers " in addition to " those that glorious Greece transferred to Kome."
This spacious literary vista must be narrowed until
it
includes only the comparatively few Latin
and
fewer Greek writers, mainly ecclesiastical and only
in small part classical, which were
available in
Yet single books meant something then. They were objects to be treasured individually rather than shelved away by thousands. A private collection of an hundred was so large as to be thought remarkable. Hence it is easy to understand how the books in the York library, although
Alcuin's time.
For the sake of convenience in translation I have written name of the learned abbat and friend of Bede, instead of the absurd Alcuinus of some manuscripts or tbe sensible, but metrically unmanageable Alcimus of Froben'a
1
Albinus, the
emendation.
>
Vertw de SanctU Eboracensia Eccleaise, w.
1635-1561.
36
ALCUIN
probably to be reckoned by hundreds rather than thousands, embraced substantially the whole of
whatever learning there was.
Alcuin's
list is
therefore significant.
Though the
restraints of metre
Isidore, yet
hindered him from including
with this exception the great school
books of the time are mentioned, the books which
were the basis of his activity as a teacher, fijst Besides at York and afterwards in Frankland. the unmentioned Isidore, whose writings were thoroughly familiar to him, he possesses Cassiodorus, Boethius and Bede, of the great medieval text-books. Of classical antiquity he has parts of
and Cicero, the poets Virgil, Statins and Lucan, and the grammarians Donatus and
Aristotle
Priscian, as his chief authors.
The
fathers of the
Latin Church were also in the library, and among
them were books
fill
of Augustine, Jerome,
Ambrose
and Gregory the Great.
influence
The
lesser authors
who
in his metrical catalogue exercise only a slight
on his own writings. Whether any of list were in Greek is not a matter It is true that Theodore of of much concern here. Tarsus had brought in the teaching of Greek at
the books in his
Canterbury, his influence subsequently extending
to York, to
and that the Irish influence was favorable studies, so that there were probably Greek books in the York library. But Alcuin, though he may have been acquainted with Greek sufficiently
Greek
to read
it
a
little,
confined his
own
literary search-
ings to Latin.
Accordingly, though Aristotle and
ALCUm THE SCHOLAR AT YORK
it is
37
some of the Greek fathers appear in his catalogue, more than likely that he is thinking only of Latin versions. All the Aristotle he employs may
be found either in Boethius or in the treatise
On
the Categories falsely attributed to Augustine.
His general school learning reposes conservatively on the old authorities, Boethius, Cassiodorus, IsiEven Boethius and Cassiodorus dore and Bede. are more admired than used, so that he practically depends upon the other two. If Martianus Capella was in the York library, no mention of the fact is
made.
Alcuin's fame as master of the school
was
great.
He handed down
to his pupils the learning he had
received and imbued
them with that
desire of study.^Elbert
ing the liberal arts
with which Egbert and
had indoctrinated him.
fact faithfully
He was
pupils.
well aware of the
precarious condition of learning and impressed this
upon his
Years afterward, in
a
letter to Charles the Great,
fidelity in this respect.
he recalled Egbert's " My master Egbert," he
wrote, " often used to say to
me
'
it
of
men who
discovered the arts, and
was the wisest it would be a
great disgrace to allow them to perish in our day. But many are now so pusillanimous as not to care about knowing the reasons of the things the Creator has made.' Thou knowest weU how agreeable a
study
is
arithmetic,
how
necessary
it is
for under-
standing the Holy Scriptures, and
courses,
how
pleasant
is
the knowledge of the heavenly bodies and their
and yet there are few who care to know
38
ALCtriN
is
such things, and what
worse, those
who
seek to
Such was the spirit of his teaching and such the estimation in which he held up learning to the view of his Many flocked to hear him, and he soon pupils. became the best known master in Britain, And yet the names of only a few of his pupils at York have been handed down. One of them was Liudger, who came from the Continent to hear him, subsequently returning and becoming the first bishop of Miinster in Saxony. If there were other foreign pupils, as is not improbable, their names are lost. The others, whose names remain, were Anglo-Saxons. Eminent among them was the younger Eanbald, who became archbishop of York in 796. He is the Symeon of
Alcuin's letters.
nence.
study them are considered blameworthy."
Three others stand next in promi-
They
are Witzo, Fridugis, and Sigulf,
who
were so attached to their master that they followed him from York to Frankland. Witzo returned to Britain in 796, but the other two never came back. Another was Osulf apparently the " prodigal son "
,
over
whom
Alcuin grieved so deeply in his
letters.
He
seems to be known later under the pseudonym Cuculus. Of his other pupils we know little beyond the names of Onias, Calwinus, Eaganhard, Waldramn, and Joseph.
The
continuity of his residence at
York was
broken by successive journeys which prepared the way for his final removal to the Continent. His first journey was taken in company with -Albert
before 766 into Frankland, and perhaps included
a
ALCUm THE SCHOLAR AT YORK
visit to
later,
39
Rome.
The second journey was somewhat
It
but earlier than 780.
visit
was probably on
this
later
that Alcuin stopped at Pavia, where
Charles the Great was tarrying on his
way home-
ward from
Italy.
Alcuin there attended the public
Jew and Peter of grammar, and thus came under the monarch's notice. His third visit was the one which resulted in transferring him from York to Frankland. It occurred early in 781, a few months after the death of -Albert, whom the elder Eanbald succeeded as archbishop of York Alcuin was sent by Eanbald to Rome to obtain from the Pope the archbishop's pallium. On this occasion he met Charles, who was again in Italy, at Parma, and was invited to leave Britain and make his home in Frankland, with a view to establishing learning Alcuin hesitated, but promised in that kingdom. he could obtain consent of his archto come in case and of the king of his own country. He bishop secured their consent and departed for the palace of Charles at Aachen in 782, thus finally giving up
disputation between Lullus the
Pisa, the king's instructor in
his place as master of the school at York.
CHAPTER in
ALCUIN THE MASTER OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
AJ>. 782-796
Alcuin arrived at the court of Charles, accompanied by a few of his faithful pupils from York,
and entered at once upon his duties. Being at that time forty-seven years of age, his scholarship and character were already developed and seasoned.
His impending task was not a further development of the learning he had received at York, but its introduction and diffusion in Frankland. For such a task he was admirably equipped, inasmuch as he brought with him all the prestige that came from being master of the best school of Western Christendom, and was additionally favored by the
Anglo-Saxon scholarship he repreand therefore suitable for schooling the minds of the untutored Franks. He was also seven years older
fact that the
sented was of an eminently practical cast
than Charles, a disparity in age sufficient to make
him
acceptable as the king's learned adviser and
same time not great enough to sympathy and companionship. The plight of learning in Frankland at this time was deplorable. Whatever traditions had found
guide,
and
at the
interfere with
40
THE MASTER OP THE PALACE SCHOOL
their
41
way from
the early Gallic schools into the
education of the Franks had long since been scattered and obliterated in the wild disorders which
characterized the times of the Merovingian kings.
The monastic and cathedral schools that had formerly flourished were then rudely broken up, the monasteries themselves being often bestowed as residences on royal favorites and thus wholly turned from a sacred to a barbarous use. The copying of books almost ceased, and all that can be found that pretends to the name of literature in this time is the dull chronicle or ignorantly
There had indeed been a soa centre of rudimentary instruction for the court, but even in this studies and letters played a very inconsiderable part as It was not one of the incidents of court life. learning have possible that should at best more than a precarious toleration, so long as the Franks remained unsettled in their social order. Exposed on the south to their Saracenic foe, and on the north and east to the stout Saxons and terrible Avars or Huns, they were consequently in danger of being ground to pieces between the two forces of MohamBut in 732 Charles medanism and heathenism.
conceived legend.
called
palace
school,
Martel, the grandfather of Charles the Great, shat-
Moslem hope of a conquest of Frankland at the battle of Tours. In 771 Charles himself, on whom was to devolve the conquest of the heathen Huns and Saxons, became sole king of His earliest efforts, however, were the Franks.
tered forever the
42
ALCUIN
Lombards who had Pope Hadrian, the first step in that series of events which ended in establishing the spiritual supremacy of the papacy, on the one hand, alongside of and supported by the temporal supremacy of the emperor, on the other. From 774 to 780 Charles was busy with the old Moslem foe, still menacing his kingdom, though unable to compass its destruction, and with the more formidable Saxons. He visited Italy in 780, when, as we have seen, he invited Alcuin to leave Britain. In 781 he returned across the Alps to his kingdom, and the next year received Alcuin and installed him as master over the revived school
directed towards subduing the
given
much annoyance
to
—
The next eight years (782-790) witnessed his continuous furtherance of Alcuin's
of the palace.
educational projects,
first
in the narrower circle
of the palace school and then in the advancement of both higher studies and general rudimentary
education throughout his kingdom.
Let us enter the school of the palace at Aachen. sits as master assisted by the obedient three who had followed him from York, Witzo, Fridugis,
Alcuin
—
and Sigulf.
ness
Charles himself
his pupils.
is
foremost in eageris
among
Beside him
Liutgard,
the queen, the last and best beloved of his wives,
and not unworthy to be his companion in study. Alcuin called her affectionately his " daughter, '^
^^filia
mea
Liutgarda, "
^
and his contemporary and
friend, Theodulf, the bishop of Orleans, celebrated
lEp.63,Jaff^.
THE MASTEK OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
in verse her nobility of character.
is
43
His delineaand images the gentle queen at the court school, earnestly bending her mind to "Among them," he writes, Alcuin's instruction. " sits the fair lady Liutgard, resplendent in mind and pious in heart. Simple and noble alike confess her fair in her accomplishments and fairei Her hand is generous, hei yet in her virtues. disposition gentle and her speech most sweet. She is a blessing to all and a harm to none. Artion
most
lifelike
dently pursuing the best studies, she stores the
liberal
arts
^
in
the retentive repository of her
mind."
Gisela, the only one of the four sisters of
Charles of
whom we
also a pupil,
have any full knowledge, was coming once and again to the school
from her retirement as abbess of Chelles. The three princes, his sons, Charles, Pepin and Lewis,
also attended, the last of these succeeding his father
as emperor.
Two of his
daughters were also pupils,
the fair-haired princess Kotrud and her gentler sis-
bert,
There were also his son-in-law, Angiland his cousins, the two brothers Adelhard and Wala, with their sister Gundrada. In addition to the members of the royal family there were Einhard, the king's intimate friend and later his biographer, Eiculf, who became archbishop of Mayence, Alcuin's beloved friend Arno, who was later archbishop of Salzburg, and the able Theodulf, afterward bishop and archbishop of Orleans. After the fashion of the time, Alcuin bestowed on
ter Gisela.
i
Carmina,
III, 1,
Sinuond's edition, p. 181>
41
ALCUIN
of this charmed circle fanciful pseuas
the
members donyms and,
Scripture.
was his wont,
it
justified the act
by
Explaining
calls Eulalia,
in a letter to Gundrada,
whom
as the
he
he writes, "Intimacy of
friendship often warrants a change of name, even
Lord himself changed Simon into Peter, and
called the sons of Zebedee the 'sons of Thimder,' a
practice approved not only in ancient times, but
name
modern day." ^ Alcuin himself assumed the which he prefixed to Albinus, a modified form of his own name. Charles is usually called David, after the warrior king of Israel, and sometimes is styled Solomon for his wisdom.^ Queen Liutgard becomes Ava, and his sister Gisela is Lucia. His son Pepin is Julius, and of his two daughters, Kotrud is Columba, and Gisela is Delia. Angilbert is Homer, Adelhard is Antony, and
in our of Flaccus,
Wala
leel.
is
Arsenius.
is
Riculf
Einhard, his secretary, is BezeDamoetas. Arno, whose name
means an eagle, is appropriately called Aquila, and Theodulf, the poetic bishop of Orleans, becomes Pindar. Of his pupils from York, Sigulf is Vetulus, Witzo is Candidus and Eridugis is Nathanael. Another pupil, Higbod, is called Macharius, and
Alcuin' s fancy does not exhaust itself imtil he has
decorated Audulf, the seneschal of the palace, and
Magenfrid, the king's chamberlain, with the names
Ep. 125, Migne. " Cernite Salomonem nostram in diademate fnlgentem sapi' entise." De Animx Satione, in Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol.
1
*
01,619.
THE MASTER OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
of
tf
of
Menalcas
It
and
Thyrsis,
the
two
swains
Virgil.
was no easy task that was
set before
him; for
the court school was not only composed of untu-
tored minds, but embraced
among
it is
its
pupils the
youthful princes and princesses, and at the same
time their elders, so that
efit
great proof of
Alcuin's tact that he was able to interest and ben-
such a heterogeneous
circle.
We may be sure
was largely conducted by the method of question and answer, Alcuin often preparing beforehand questions and answers alike, and that the substance of it at the start was grammar. And yet he went beyond this in his excursions over "the plains of arithmetical art," and in astronomy, rhetoric and dialectics, so that the palace school soon became the one centre within the
that his instruction
royal dominions for the prosecution of higher studies.
The exigencies
only
to be
all his tact,
of his position
but unflagging activity.
demanded not He had
more than a skilful teacher of docile pupils, awakened minds roved restlessly about from one question and puzzle to another, and with
for their
these they plied their master assiduously, not the
least persistent of his questioners being the
king
himself.
to
Charles wanted to
it
know everything and
know
at once.
His strong, uncurbed nature
eagerly seized on learning, both as a delight for him-
and a means of giving stability to his governso, while he knew he must be docile, he was at the same time imperious. Alcuin knew how
self
ment, and
46
to
ALCUm
meet him, and at need could be either patiently and reproving. Thus, on one occasion when he had been informed of the great learning of Augustine and Jerome, he impatiently demanded of Alcuin, " Why can I not have twelve clerks such as these? " Twelve Augustines and Jeromes and to be made arise at the king's bidding! Alcuin was shocked. "What!" he discreetly rejoined, "the Lord of heaven and earth had but two such, and wouldst thou have twelve?" But his personal affection for the king was most unselfish, and he
jocular or grave
!
consequently took great delight in stimulating his
desire
"0 that I could forever for learning. sport with thee in Pierian verse " he writes, " or
!
scan the lofty constellations of the sky, or be studying the fair forms of numbers, or turn aside to the
stupendous sayings of the ancient fathers, or treat
of the sacred precepts of our eternal salvation."
Here
is
mention of several studies which they pur:
which we may here include sued together poetry, astronomy, arithmetic, the writunder grammar,
—
—
ings of the fathers, and theology proper, and of
these the king's
favorite
was astronomy.
He
that
/'
studied everything Alcuin set before him, but had
special anxiety to learn all about the
moon
was needed to calculate Easter. With such an eager and impatient pupil as Charles, the other scholars
were soon inspired to beset Alcuin with endless puzzling questions, and there are not wanting evidences that some of them were disposed to levity But he was and even carped at his teachings.
THE MASTER OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
47
indefatigable, rising with the sun to prepare for
In one of his poetical exercises he says of himself that " as soon as the ruddy charioteer of
teaching.
the
dawn
suffuses the liquid deep
with the new
light of day, the old
man
rubs the sleep of night
from his eyes and leaps at once from his couch, running straightway into the fields of the ancients to pluck their flowers of correct speech and scatter
them
in sport before his boys."
^
He
begs Charles
to protect
him against
is
their levity, yet not because
he himself
old boxer Entellus
weak, for he plainly says that the is still equal to overthrowing
any youthful Dares. ^ Books and studies were not his only care as a teacher, for he was not wanting in plain speech in regard to the lax morals of the court and of Charles himself. Whatever he gave in the way of private, friendly admonition by word of mouth is of course lost to us, but we have on record in his Dialectics how he reasoned with the king on temperance as one of the highest kingly virtues, and in the treatise dedicated to Gundrada (Eulalia) on The Nature of the Soul, his pointed admonition, " Behold our Solomon, resplendent with the diadem of wisdom. Imitate his most noble traits. Cherish his virtues, but avoid his vices." ^ When it is remem-bered that Alcuin's nature was peaceable, even to timorousness, and that Charles was a man who
1
2
Carmina, CCXXXI, Migne, CI, 782. Carmina, CCXXX, Migne, CI, 782.
Migne, CI, 619.
•
48
ALCUm
such faithful,
plain
could be fierce to cruelty,
speaking on the part of Flaccus concerning his King David seems no less heroic than was the
conduct of Nathan the prophet toward King David If, then, on occasion he did not in Jerusalem.
spare the monarch,
whom he both
loved and feared,
faithful dealing
we
are prepared to find the
same
with his lesser pupils. And such was the fact. Again and again he exhorts both princes and princesses, by name, not only to be discreet and wise,
but to be chaste ; and at least on the young prince Lewis his teachings were not lost, for when he succeeded his father as emperor, though he
fell short of
him
in studies, he so far exceeded
him
in holiness
of life that he earned the title of Lewis the Pious.
The plans of Charles, however, were not restricted
to the palace school, important as
tre
it was as a cenand example for the learning he hoped to establish. He did not intend to rule a barbarian kingdom. Therefore he aimed to civilize and establish his people with Christian learning, and in this of course Alcuin's counsel was indispensable and his co-operation enthusiastic. " If only there were many who would follow the illustrious desire of your intent," he wrote to Charles, "perchance a new, nay, a more excellent Athens might be
founded in Frankland; for our Athens, being ennobled with the mastership of Christ the Lord,
would surpass all the wisdom of the studies of the Academy. That was instructed only in the Platonic disciplines and had fame for its culture in the
:
:
THE MASTER OF THE PAXACE SCHOOL
seven
arts,
49
but ours being enriched beyond this
with the sevenfold plenitude of the Holy Spirit,
would excel all the dignity of secular learning." ^ Acting under such impulses, Charles issued in 787 that famous capitulary, or proclamation, which
is
the
first
general charter of education for the
It is in the
middle ages.
form of a
letter to
the abbats of the different monasteries, reproving their illiteracy and exhorting them " not only not
to neglect the study of letters, but to apply
selves thereto with perseverance,"
themand especially
to choose out for this great
work "men who are
capitulary is so imIt
both able and willing to learn, and also desirous
of instructing others."
The
portant that
it
deserves complete presentation.
reads as follows in the only copy that has been
preserved, the one addressed to Baugulf, abbat of
the great monastery at Fulda
"Charles, by the grace of God, King of the Franks and of the Lombards, and Patrician of the Romans, to Baugulf, abbat, and to his whole congregation and the faithful committed to his charge " Be it known to your devotion, pleasing to God, that in conjunction with our faithful we have judged it to be of utility that, in the bishoprics and monasteries committed by Christ's favor to our charge, care should be taken that there shall be not only a regular manner of life and one conformable to holy
religion,
but also the study of
letters,
each to teach
and learn them according to
l£p.86Migne;
his ability
a«d the
110 Jaff^
60
ALCUIN
For even as due observance of house tends to good morals, so zeal
divine assistance.
the rule of
tlie
on the part of the teacher and the taught imparts order and grace to sentences; and those who seek
to please
lect to please
ten
*
God by living aright should also not neghim by right speaking. It is writby thine own words shalt thou be justified or
condemned'; and although right doing be preferable to right speaking, yet must the knowledge of what is right precede right action. Every one, therefore, should strive to understand what it is that he would fain accomplish; and this right
understanding will be the sooner gained according as the utterances of the tongue are free from error.
And
if false
speaking
it
is
to be
shunned by
all
men,
especially should
be shunned by those
who have
During
elected to be the servants of the truth.
past years
we have
often received letters from
different monasteries informing us that at their
sacred services the brethren offered
up prayers on
our behalf; and we have observed that the thoughts
contained in these letters, though in themselves
most
just,
were expressed in uncouth language, and
while pious devotion dictated the sentiments, the
unlettered tongue was unable to express
aright.
them
Hence there has
arisen in our minds the
fear lest, if the skill to write rightly were thus
would the power of rightly comprehending the Sacred Scriptures be far less than was fitting, and we all know that though verbal errors be dangerous, errors of the understanding are yet
lacking, so too
THE MASTER OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
more
so.
51
We
exhort you, therefore, not only not
to neglect the study of letters, but to apply your-
selves thereto with perseverance
and with that
humility which
is
well pleasing to God; so that
you may be able to penetrate with greater ease and
certainty the mysteries of the
Holy
Scriptures.
For as these contain images, tropes, and similar figures, it is impossible to doubt that the reader will arrive far more readily at the spiritual sense according as he is the better instructed in learning. Let there, therefore, be chosen for this work men who are both able and willing to learn, and also desirous of instructing others and let them apply themselves to the work with a zeal equalling the earnestness with which we recommend it to them. " It is our wish that you may be what it behoves religious in the soldiers of the Church to be,
;
—
heart, learned in discourse, pure in act, eloquent,
in speech; so that all
who approach your house
life,
in
order to invoke the Divine Master or to behold the
excellence of the religious
may
be edified in
beholding you and instructed in hearing you discourse or chant, and may return home rendering thanks to God most High.
" Fail not, as thou regardest our favor, to send a
copy of this
letter to all
thy suffragans and to
all
the monasteries; and let no
monk go beyond
his
monastery to administer justice or to enter the Adieu." ^ assemblies and the voting-places.
1 1
fine version of
]^f.
Migne, Patrologia Latina, XCVIII, 895. I have taken the Mr. MoUinger in his Schools of Charles the Greats
97-99.
52
ALCUIN
The
voice
is
the voice of Charles, but the hand
is
the hand of Alcuin.
The vigorous and commanding
it
tone
is
the king's own, but he could never have
in the
devised the argument and cast
the traditions of learning so perfectly unless he
mould of had
been assisted by his master, and yet throughout the document the influences of Charles and Alcuin on
each other are so happily blended that the mind
and
spirit that
dominate
it
are one.
It is not sur-
prising, then, that it is
the most important state
paper of his reign on the subject of education; for
although
its
application in practice was not lasting,
of
and no
enduring restoration
education was
was neither the fault of the capitIt was the necessary result of the insecurely protected social order. The bishops and abbats did respond in the lifetime of Charles and for a generation later; and while the society which he had ruled remained settled, so
effected, yet this
ulary nor of the king.
long the schools flourished, going
the general crash of the tenth century,
down only in when a new
But though
barbarism overran Western Europe.
of his exertions
itself
the schools founded under the stimulating influence
had but a short
life,
the capitulary
remains to show us the great possibilities of
the ideas which in inchoate form lay in his mind.
First
and most noteworthy
is
the assumption of the
right of the state in the person of its sovereign,
who
is still
only a king of the Franks and not yet
head of the Holy
Roman Empire,
eral attention to education,
to compel a genand in particular to see
THE MASTER OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
to
it
53
that the Church should keep
up the study
of
letters.
A
second 'idea worthy of notice
is that,
jects,
without a due study and teaching of secular subthe servants of the Church will be unable to fulfil their proper functions and will be greatly
hampered
in understanding the Scriptures.
The
capitulary does not stop here, however, and insists
both on the training of the monks and priests in learning, and moreover on the raising up of a body
of teachers to perpetuate the great
tion, " men
who
are both able
work of educaand willing to learn
and also desirous of instructing others." It is a pity that so few records of the time remain which cast light on the actual effect of the capituStill there is no reason to doubt that it was lary. generally obeyed, and there are not wanting evidences here and there of the institution of schools and of further commands of the king to extend and strengthen learning. In the very year in which the capitulary was issued, Charles, according to one of his annalists, " brought with him from Rome into Frankland masters in grammar and reckoning, and
everywhere ordered the expansion of the study of letters; for before our lord King Charles, there
We have
had been no study of the liberal arts in Gaul." ^ also a letter from the king in 788 to the
abbat of Fulda,'' charging him to see to the schools
in that place.
issued, laying
1
In 789 a second capitulary was
down more
Monumenta
definite instructions,
and
Jaffe,
Carolina, p. 343, note.
3 Epistolfs Carolina, 3, Jaffd.
54
ALCUm
this time, or perhaps earlier, belongs the so-
urgently enjoining their observance on the monks.*
To
Homilary which Charles promulgated in order to promote the correction of the badly copied
called
books of Scripture, containing the following significant passage " As it is our desire to improve the
:
condition of the Church,
we make
it
our task to
restore with the most watchful zeal the study of letters, a task almost forgotten through the neglect
of our ancestors.
jects,
We
set
therefore enjoin on our sub-
so far as they
may be
able, to
study the
them the example." " issued from Aachen in 789, Another capitulary, gave further aid to education by insisting that
liberal arts,
and we
candidates for the priesthood should be taken, not
from the children of the servile class, but from the sons of freemen * and, moreover, as late as the year 802, still another capitulary enjoined that "every one should send his son to study letters, and that the child should remain at school with all diligence until he should become well instructed in learning."* He secured promotion to influential sees of men who were learned and full of zeal in the Such were Paulinus, the cause of education.
;
patriarch of Aquileia; Leidrad, the archbishop of
Lyons;
Orleans.
Arno,
archbishop of
Salzburg;
Riculf,
archbishop of Mayence; and Theodulf, bishop of
A report of Leidrad to
I,
Charles, concernis still
ing the schools established in his diocese,
1
Pertz, Leges,
66.
»
Baluze,
I,
209.
1,
» Pertz, Leges, 1, 44.
* Pertz,
Leges,
107.
THE MASTER OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
preserved, from which
it is
56
clear that besides the
coinmoii village schools there
maintained, and that
it
was a cathedral school was in some sense prepara-
tory to the school of the palace.^ Theodulf, the bishop of Orleans, carried out in his diocese the instructions of his king most thoroughly by organizing schools in every parish for the children of
all,
enjoining upon the priests to exact no fees for
their teaching.
His words are: "Let the priests
hold schools in the towns and villages, and if any of the faithful wish to entrust their children
to
them
for the learning of letters, let
them not
and teach such children. Moreover, let them teach them from pure affection, remembering that it is written, 'the wise shall shine as the splendor of the firmament,' and 'they that
refuse to receive
instruct
stars
many
in righteousness shall shine as the
forever and forever.'
And
let
them exact
no price from the children for their teaching, nor receive anything from them, save what their parents may offer voluntarily and from affection." ' From these and other scattered notices, we are able to form some notion of the extent to which
1
De Scholis celebrioribus seu a Carolo Magna sen post eundem
instauratis. Launois, Opera, IV, p. 14. " Presbyteri per villas et vicos scholas babeant et si quilibet fidelium suos parvulos ad discendas literas eis commendare vult,
2
Carolum per Occidentem
eos suscipere ac docere non renuant, sed eos doceant.
.
.
cum somma
caritate
.
Cum ergo
eos decent, nihil ab eis pretii pro
hac re exigant, ezcepto quod eis parentes caritatis studio sua voluntate obtulerint." Migne, Patrologia Latina, CV, pp. 191
and
207.
66
ALCUm
Uni-
the ideas of the king were understood and also of the character of the schools established.
versal provision for elementary
instruction
was
contemplated and to some extent carried out, and in Theodulf we see for the first time the assertion
of the principle that elementary instruction should
be gratuitous.
Had
it
been possible to follow this
up with the next and most natural step, namely, making of the elementary instruction not only universal and gratuitous but compulsory, the consequences would of course have been far reaching. But though Charles finally went so far as to enjoin
that " every one should send his son to school to
study letters and that the child should remain at school with all diligence until he should become
well instructed in learning," the idea of organized
compulsion does not seem to have crossed his mind.
was reserved for modern times. In regard to the character of the schools themselves, it should be observed that they were not all The palace school was unique. It of one sort. was the chief centre of culture, a very rudimentary learned academy, but yet the head and centre of
It
the education of the times.
The other
schools
may
be roughly divided into the monastic and cathedral in one class and the parish or village schools in The monastic and cathedral schools the other.
gave elementary and, in some instances, superior
instruction, while the village schools
were purely
elementary.
parish priest.
The head of a village school was the The head of a monastic school was
THE MASTER OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
its
67
abbat,
who was
responsible to the head of his
order and thus to Rome.
of the diocese,
to
The head
of a cathedral
school was the scholasticus appointed
by the bishop
who in his turn was also answerable But the abbats of the monasteries did not acknowledge jurisdiction on the part of the bishops over them, and this led to frequent conflicts whenever the bishop attempted to exercise such In fact, Alcuin himself was in this jurisdiction.
Rome.
way brought
into unfriendly relations with his
own
friend, Theodulf, the bishop of Orleans, at the time
cese.
when Alcuin was abbat of St. Martin in that dioThe monastic schools came to be divided
into
two
sides, the interior
and the exterior
school.
is,
The
boys
interior school received only the dblati, that
who were
offered for the monastic life.
The
exterior schools were attended
not to be monks, but priests, and by those
by boys who were who were
intended for secular life. In both the interior and exterior schools instruction was gratuitous. The episcopal or cathedral schools were neither so
strict
nor so flourishing as the monastic schools,
whose exterior side they resembled, educating candidates for the priesthood and children of laymen The scholars were partly maintained generally. by the endowments of the school and, in the case of the laity, to some extent by the payment of Apart from the rigorous discipline of tuition. monastic life exacted of the oblati, there is, however, no essential distinction to be drawn between the instruction furnished in the monasteries and cathe*
58
ALCUIN
It
drals.
began with learning to read and write,
the computus, or art of reckoning, the principal use of which was to determine the church calendar, and
also the art of singing.
Above
this
rudimentary
teaching came the study of grammar, to which great pains was devoted, sometimes followed by rhetoric
and
dialectics,
with
little
or nothing beyond, except
in the greatest monasteries.
also the study of
Of course there was
In the village
Holy
Scripture.
schools nothing but the rudiments were taught, except such scholastically unimportant additions as
the learning of the creed, the Lord's Prayer, and
perhaps parts of the Psalter.
Three stages or levels of advancement are thus
discernible in the education incompletely organized
by Charles and Alcuin.
At the head
of their
or,
hierarchy of schools stands the palace school
to strain the expression severely, the university.
Underneath this and preparatory to
schools, while
it is
the second-
ary teaching of certain monastery and cathedral
primary education
is
is
also found in
monasteries and cathedrals and
the exclusive
substance of instruction in the village schools.
In 790, after eight years of unsparing labor in
the conduct of the palace school and the further-
ance of the king's wider educational projects, Alcuin
returned to York.
Witzo, and then Fridugis, tem-
porarily took his place in the palace school.
He
had never abjured his allegiance to the king of his native Northumbria nor his obedience to the archbishop of York, regarding himself as only a so-
THE MASTER OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
journer at the court of Charles.
natural,
It
69
was therefore
when
the palace school had become well
established,
and the king's commands for founding
other schools had been measurably carried out, that
Alcuin should regard his task among the Franks The limitations under which he as accomplished.
labored at the court must also have become plain;
for with all the lively interest in learning that
was
awakened, there were no such stable guarantees
for its
perpetuation visible in the disposition or
raw Franks as could be compared with the well-settled and vigorous tradition the only steady light of learning in Northumbria,
intelligence of the
—
that
had broken the general darkness
for
now
nearly a century.
The
publicity of a court
and the
fro, whenever Charles moved from Aachen, were far less congenial to him than monastic seclusion, and where could he so naturally turn for this as to his old home in York? There was the peaceful round of ecclesiastical life, there was the great store of books, which he had sadly missed at the court, there were his brethren and some of his old pupils in the home of his youth, and there accordingly was the true retreat for his
journeying to and
declining years.
A dissension
had sprung up shortly before
this
time between Charles and Offa, king of Mercia,
then the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon rulers.
Charles, consenting to Alcuin's visit to Britain, gave
him
letters to Offa
and enabled him
to act as
an
in-
termediary in effecting a reconciliation.
Arrived at
60
ALCUm
York, Alcuin found that Ethelred, in one of those
sudden mutations to which the affairs of the petty kings of the Anglo-Saxons were so liable, had become king of Northumbria. His cruelties and excesses were shocking and went far to discourage the hope of peaceful retirement with which Alcuin Successfully concluding his had returned home. peace-making negotiations with Offa, Alcuin found himself not indisposed to obey the summons which came from Charles to return to his court, where there was new and urgent need for his services. Accordingly he left York for Aachen in 792. Two heresies had sprung up which threatened not only
the ecclesiastical unity of Latin Christendom, but
the peace of Frankland as well.
One was the
teach-
ing of two Spanish bishops, Felix of Urgel and
Elipandus of Toledo, that Christ was not the Son of
God
in the sense of being so
to his Godhead, while as to his
by generation, except as manhood he was
This effort to solve the mystery attaching to the two natures in the person of Christ was known as Adoptionism. Against this heresy Alcuin vindicated the old Church doctrine by several treatises, finally securing its condemnation in 794 by the Council of Frankfort. It is a noteworthy fact that nowhere in his writings is there any call upon the king to use his civil power to
not begotten but adopted.
to have was well that he did not, whether his forbearance was due to a sense of
crush the heresy.
Nor does Charles seem
It
thought of doing
justice,
so.
fondness for theological controversy, or
THE MASTER OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
political expediency.
«!
There
is
reason to believe
that all these motives were influential.
Had
the
king resorted to civil punishment instead of resorting to the more peaceful but equally potent
resource of ecclesiastical condemnation, the politi-
danger was that the Spanish heretics, who were numerous and obstinate, would join themselves to his old Saracen foes in Spain and thus embolden them to harass his kingdom. .i(0 The other heretical foe was also political in its alliances. Irene, the ruler of the Eastern Empire, had done much to re-establish the worship of images, and succeeded in carrying through her designs by
cal
the aid of a dubiously constituted general council
At this council Pope Hadrian was not recognized as in any way the head of the Church, and consequently not only was the primacy of Rome ignored, but the independence and unity of the Western Church was thereby imperilled. He was not Hadrian's dilemma was painful. ready to put the ban of the Church on image-worship in moderation, but felt bound to resist this
held at Nice in 787.
Eastern encroachment on his papal dignity.
If he
acquiesced in the validity of the council's restoration of image-worship, he thereby submitted to the
tyranny of Irene and Constantinople. If he threw himself tipon the sovereigns of the West
political
to support his independence,
he must break with
the East and perhaps consent to condemn image-
which the papacy had countenanced. There was but one king able to aid him, and that
worship,
62
ALCUIN
So in 792, after long concealsent
king was Charles.
of Nice.
ment and avoidance, Hadrian
him the
decrees
Charles of course could not endure that
the Pope should be in vassalage to his political
rival of the East,
and was moreover an abominator
of image-worship. Whatever languid eastern Christians
might do, the independent Franks would never
prostrate themselves in abasement before the effigies
of saints.
He
sent Alcuin the Nicene enactments,
urging him to refute them, and Alcuin devoted himself assiduously to his task. It is in every
way
probable that the so-called Caroline Books, which
appeared at this time as a work of Charles, refuting the Nicene errors and exposing the idolatrous
character of image-worship, are really the
Alcuin.*
work of The Council of Frankfort, which Alcuin attended by the king's request, not only dealt with
the practice of image-worship and to reject
the Adoptionist heresy, but also proceeded to con-
demn
the authority of Nice, and as the result of this
council the two great theologico-political spectres
of the time of Charles were laid.
Meanwhile Alcuin's thoughts were being weaned idea of a return to his own land by the incursions of the Norsemen on its coasts, and especially by the horrible devastation of Lindisfame. His longing for retirement grew stronger and stronger and, after he had passed his sixtieth year, became irrepressible. He earnestly begged Charles to let him go to Fulda and there end his
away from the
1
Monumenta Alcuiniana,
p. 220, note.
THE MASTER OF THE PALACE SCHOOL
days in peace.
63
to the rule of even the abbat of Fulda,
But Charles would not subject him and as the
St.
abbat of the venerable house of
stead.
Martin at Tours
died at that time (796), he appointed Alcuin in his
CHAPTEB IV
ALCUIN THE ABBAT OP TOUBS
A.D. 796-804
The monastery
est in Frankland.
of St. Martin at Tours, on the
banks of the Loire, was one of the oldest and richAdjoining the church wherein the relics of St. Martin himself were enshrined, honored by gifts of the Prankish kings and hallowed by the devout visits of many a band of pilgrims, it was easily the first abbey within the dominions of
Charles, not yet rivalled even
by Fulda.
tilled
Its rich
endowments, consisting of landed estates scattered
in various parts of the
kingdom and
by thouits
sands of
serfs,
yielded great revenues toward
support, so that
when Charles appointed Alcuin
gift,
to
be
its
abbat, he conferred the highest monastic bene-
fice
within his
disregarding precedent in his
zeal to do honor to his old teacher,
who had no reason
monk,
to expect such elevation, Alcuin not being a
but a simple deacon of the church at York. Yet he was a monk in spirit, " a true monk without the
monk's vow," as his biographer admiringly writes, and Alcuin may have had such relations to monastic
life at
York
as to
make
his selection at least eccle-
siastically unobjectionable.
The monks at Tours
64
ALCUm THE ABBAT OF
TOtJES
66
had been living with less strictness than their vows required, and it was therefore Alcuin's first care to subject them to the rigorous rule of the Benedictine order. This was not accomplished without a strong effort, and the importation of brethren from other
monasteries to assist in reviving the strictness he so
desired to see practised.
But Alcuin's
efforts
were
life.
not limited to a simple revival of the monastic
His house was to be a centre not only of austerity, His provident mind perceived but of learning. clearly that if the learning which had been established with such pains in Northumbria was already in danger of destruction, and if, moreover, the learning he himself had brought thence into Frankland would lose a powerful protector after Charles should be gone, the best service which he could render by way of forestalling the uncertain outlook was to raise up by his own personal teaching, in the few years that remained to him, a body of pupils so devoted to learning and so considerable in number, that there might be good hope of passing on the tradition of studies through their hands. It was thus that learning had been saved before by being literally handed down from one teacher to the next, from Benedict Biscop to Bede, from Bede to Egbert, and from Egbert to Alcuin, so that in the eyes of such a respecter of traditional methods as Alcuin was, it might well seem the only way of discharging his duty in his turn.
Accordingly he set about his work with the same
industry and zeal that had marked his earlier teach*
66
ing,
ALCUIN
though in a soberer and at times a severer Soon after his installation at Tours, he wrote to Charles a letter which furnishes glimpses of the beginning of his work. "I, your riaccus," he writes,^ "following out your exhortation and desire, strive to minister to some in the house of St. Martin the honeys of Holy Scripture. Others I seek to inebriate with the old wine of the ancient disciplines, and still others will I begin to nourish with the apples of grammatical subtlety. Again, I endeavor to irradiate the minds of others with the order of the stars, even as a painter would illumispirit.
dome of a church,' being made all things to all men so that I may instruct many for the advantage of the holy Church of God
nate by his figures the
honor of your kingdom, that the grace God may not be found vain in me, nor the generosity of your kindness of none effect." There is something of the glow of his earlier years
for the
and
of Almighty
in this allegorical description.
He
is
once more at
his old work, teaching the Scriptures, teaching the " ancient disciplines " or liberal arts, starting be-
ginners in grammar, and instructing others more
The
advanced in the king's favorite study, astronomy. studies which he had begun to cultivate at
plants finally to the abbey at Tours.
Ep. 78 Jaffe 43 Migne. The clause translated " even as a painter would illuminate by his figures the dome of a church," is obscure in the text of Alcuin's letter. I give what seems to be the meaning.
1
;
York, and introduced at the palace, he now trans-
s
ALCUIN THE ABBAT OF TOURS
But
his activity
67
was straitened at
first
by the
lack of books, and of this he informs the king,
asking leave to send some of the younger monks to
York
to obtain them.
"I, your servant," he con-
tinues, " lack the rarer books of scholastic erudition
which I had in
industry of
labors.
my own country through the devoted my master -lElbert, and by my own
so I mention this to your excellency,
it
And
in the hope
may
please the
wisdom
of your
counsel that I should send some of the youth here
to bring to us the necessary books,
and thus fetch
in the Euboric
into Frankland the flowers of Britain, so that besides
the 'garden inclosed' that
city, there
is
now
may
likewise be in the Turonic city
'orchards of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, ' and
thus shall 'the south wind come and blow upon our
gardens' along the river Loire 'that the spices
flow out.' Thus indeed shall be fulwhich follows in the Book of Canticles,* whence I have taken this parable: 'My beloved shall come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits,' and say to the youth: 'Eat, friends! yea, drink and be drunken, O beloved Moreover the word of the prophet Isaiah exhorting to the study of wisdom shall also be fulfilled: 'Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and ye who have no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without any price.' " What books Alcuin received from York as the result of this request we do not
thereof
may
filled that
!
'
1
Solomon's Song
iv, 12, 13, 16,
and
y, 1.
;
68
ALCUIN
know, except that they were of course such books as he himself had access to when there. Isidore and Bede would naturally be sent for among the books on the liberal arts, and in fact we have knowledge of the copying of the works of Bede under Alcuin's supervision at Tours. There were undoubtedly many volumes of the fathers, which Alcuin felt necessary to have brought from Britain for when he wrote elaborately some years before against the Adoptionist heresy and image-worship,
he had to resort to the library at York to obtain his numerous quotations from the patristic writings. It is also worth noticing that the spirit in which he proposed to teach at Tours had the same liberality of intention which had characterized the capitulary
of his friend and helper, Theodulf, enjoining upon
the priests of his diocese to teach without exacting
Such is the meaning of Alcuin's quo" Ye who have no money, come, from Isaiah tation yea, come, buy wine and milk without and eat, buy without any price." The thought of and money for teaching pay was in Alcuin's not exacting mind, and the fact that the teaching was gratuitous, while the value of what was taught was inestimable, seemed to him one of the strongest incentives It is interesting to study on the part of his pupils. connection, in this some verses ascribed to note, to fork in the up at street of and set a Salzburg him, in direction way led one to tavern the a and where
tuition fees.
:
in the other to a school.
They
read, "
O
traveler,
hastening through the street! halt on thy way and
ALCUIN THE ABBAT OF TOURS
read these versicles studiously.
lead
69
The one
side will
him who
is
desires drink to a tavern, but the
other
blest with a double advantage.
Then
which way thou wilt! either to go and drink, or to go and learn from holy If thou wilt drink, thou must also pay books. money, but if thou wilt learn, thou shalt have what
choose,
traveler,
O
thou seekest for nothing."
^
he says,
cise,
Let us return to his letter to Charles. Nothing, is a loftier attainment or a pleasanter exer-
a stronger defence against vice, or more praiseworthy in every way, than studies and learning, to which we are exhorted in every page of Scripture. Nothing, he reminds the king, is so excellent for the young princes in the palace, now in the flower
of youth, as to pursue their studies, for
it is
these
which will bring them honor in their old age and finally qualify them for eternal blessedness. "According to the measure of my small ability," he
impressively continues, " I shall not be slothful in
sowing the seeds of wisdom among your servants in
these regions, being mindful of the saying: *In the
morning sow thy seed and in the evening withhold not thine hand, for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both In the morning I sowed the shall be alike good.
'
seed in Britain in the flourishing studies of youth,
and now, as
my
blood
is
growing
chill at evening,
I cease not to
sow the seed
in Frankland, praying
that both alike
1
may
prosper by the grace of God."
Migne, Vol. CI, 757, Carm. CXIX.
70
ALCUIN
The evening is sensibly approaching, and Alcuin grows more and more conscious of the shortness of His purpose, however, the time at his command.
is
only the more resolute, his desire the more ear-
nest, that the
good work he had begun in Britain and
continued in Frankland
sets
may
prosper.
And
so he
himself busily to the consummation of his
work, and the abbey at Tours at once becomes the
best school in Frankland.
In addition to the strict enforcement of monastic and the instruction given in the school both to candidates for the religious life and to the laity, Alcuin was occupied in supervising the copying of manuscripts in the scriptorium, and the books that were made became models for His careful particularity in copyists thereafter. regard to punctuation and orthography, and his employment of a clearer and neater form of letter,
discipline
are to be seen to-day as the distinguishing features
of the
body of
classical
and
patristic manuscripts
dating from the ninth century and written in what
Of course, the books which issued from Tours are in no way to
are called the Caroline minuscules.
be compared with the stately uncial manuscripts
Roman Empire, but they are a vast improvement, both in appearance and accuracy, over the slovenly transcripts made in the time of the Merovingian kings. Alcuin himself had served
of the late
as a copyist at York,
and his treatise On Orthography
was
in all probability the reference-book of the
scribes as they
worked under his supervision at
ALCUm THE ABBAT OF TOURS
Tours.
71
There are not wanting indications in his
writings of the scrupulous regard he paid to these
matters,
and of the discouraging ignorance on the
In a from Tours, in 799, he mentions the fact that he had copied out on some blank parchment, which the king had sent him, a short treatise on correct diction with illustrations and examples from Bede, and another containing "certain figures of arithmetical subtlety composed for amusement," and then adds apologetically: "Although the distinctions and sub-distinctions of punctuation give a fairer aspect to written sentences, yet from the rusticity of scribes their employment has almost disappeared. But even as the glory of all learning and the ornaments of wholesome erudition begin to be seen again, by reason of your noble exertions, so also it seems most fitting that the use of punctuation should also be resumed by scribes. Accordletter written to Charles
part of scribes, which he had to overcome.
ingly, although I accomplish but little, I contend
daily with the rusticity of Tours.
ity so instruct the
Let your author-
may
tate,
youths at the palace that they be able to utter with perfect elegance whatso-
ever the clear eloquence of your thought
so that wheresoever the
may
dic-
parchment bearing
display the excel-
the royal
name
shall go,
it
may
^
lence of the royal learning."
to Charles to
A very delicate hint
to
mind
his
see that the princes at
commas and colons, and Aachen did the same,
as
well as a lament for the general disregard of the
1
£p. 101 Migne; 112JafEd
72
ALCDIN
and
niceties of writing.
accuracies
Alcnin's in-
junctions to the scribes at Tours were repeated
more than once and found expression in some of his verses which seem to have been affixed to the entrance of the scriptorium as a permanent warning. They run as follows ^ " Here let the scribes sit who copy out the words of the Divine Law, and likewise the hallowed sayings of holy fathers. Let them beware of interspersing their own frivolities in the words they copy, nor let a trifler's hand make mistakes through haste. Let. them earnestly
:
seek out for themselves correctly written books to
transcribe, that the flying
pen may speed along the
Let them distinguish the proper sense by colons and commas, and set the points, each one in its due place, and let not him who reads the
right path.
words to them either read falsely or pause suddenly.
It is a noble
work
to write out holy books,
nor shall the scribe fail of his due reward.
ing books
is
Writ-
better than planting vines, for he
who
plants a vine serves his belly, but he
who
writes
a book serves his soul." We can almost reconstruct the scene.
In the between the hours of prayer and the intervals observance of the round of cloister life, come hours for the copying of books under the presiding direcThe young monks file into the tion of Alcuin. and one of them is given the precious scriptorium, volume containing a work of Bede or parchment portion of the Augustine, or else some Isidore or
1
Migne. CI, 745, Carm.
LXVn.
ALCUIN THE ABBAT OF TOURS
Latin Scriptures, or even a heathen author.
all the others seated at their
73
He
reads slowly and clearly at a measured rate while
desks take
words, and thus perhaps a score of copies are
at once.
down his made
Alcuin's observant eye watches each in
turn and his correcting hand points out the mistakes
in orthography
and punctuation.
The master of
is
Charles the Great, in that true humility that
the
charm of his whole behavior, makes himself the writing-master of his monks, stooping to the drudgery of
faithfully
and gently correcting their many puerile
mistakes, and all for the love of studies and the
love of Christ.
Under such guidance and deeply
impressed by the fact that in the copying of a few books they were saving learning and knowledge
from perishing, and thereby offering a service most acceptable to God, the copying in the scriptorium went on in sobriety from day to day. Thus were produced those improved copies of books which
mark the beginning
of a
new age
in the conserving
and transmission of learning. Alcuin's anxiety in this regard was not undue, for the few monasteries where books could be accurately transcribed were
as necessary for publication in that time as are
the great publishing houses to-day.
One other phase
of Alcuin's educational activity
remains to be noticed. It is his literary intercourse with kings and ecclesiastics of influence, touching
the state of learning.
spondence,
letters
if
Five-sixths of his corre-
we may judge by
the three hundred
now
extant, belongs to the eight years
which
74
ALCUIN
elapsed between his coming to Tours and his death,
and the fulness of information and reminiscence
therein preserved
is
of the first historical value for
the latter half of the eighth century.
rich miscellany
it is
From
this
possible to gather enough infor-
mation to warrant a judgment as to the fortunes of learning both in Britain and Frankland, with the added advantage of getting many a personal glimpse
of the leading actors in the educational
movement
wherein Alcuin was the central figure. Some of the letters deal with Britain, for the old man's thoughts turned thither again and again.
His
first
love
allegiance
was his native land, and his home was never renounced. "Never have I
been unfaithful to the people of Britain," he once wrote from the palace of Charles to an Anglo-Saxon
And with even more devotion he wrote same spirit to his brethren of York shortly " My fathers and brethbefore he went to Tours. ren, dearer than all else in the world, pray do not forget me for, alike in life and death, I shall ever And peradventure God in mercy may be yours. grant that you, who nursed my infancy, may bury me in old age. But if some other place shall be
presbyter.^ in the
;
appointed for
my
body, yet I believe that
my
soul
will be granted repose
among
you, through your
holy intercession in prayer.'"*
It
that
was perhaps one of his first letters from Tours was sent to King Offa in response to a request
1
Ep. 15 Jaffe
;
8 Migne.
>Ep. 34Jaffe; 6 Migne.
ALCUIN THE ABBAT OF TOURS
76
that Alcuin should send one of his pupils into
Alcuin complied with Offa's complimenting him on his great zeal for study, "a zeal so great," he writes, "that the light of learning, though extinguished in manyplaces, now shines in your dominions."^ To the same year (796) belongs his congratulatory letter to his former pupil, the younger Eanbald, on his elevation to the archbishopric of York. Alcuin gratefully dwells on the fact that it was he who had been privileged to train such a pupil among " Praise and glory be to the his " sons " at York. Lord God Almighty " he fervently exclaims, " that
Britain to teach.
desire,
—
!
I,
the last of the servants of the Church, was spared
to instruct
among my
sons one
who
should be held
worthy to become a steward of the mysteries of Christ, laboring in my place in the Church wherein I was nursed and instructed, and presiding over the treasures of learning to which my beloved master. Archbishop Albert, left me his heir."* Then, after general counsels, Alcuin enjoins on his pupil, now archbishop of the see to which he himself would in all probability have been elevated had he remained in England, the duty of keeping up the school. He also tells Eanbaid how to conduct it. "Provide masters both for your boys and for the grown-up clerks. Separate into
classes those
who
1
are to study in books, those
are to practise the church music, and those
Ep. 43 Jaffe; 49 Migne.
who who
* Ep. 72 Ja£C€ ; 66 Migne.
76
ALCUIN
Have a
boys
separate
are to engage in transcribing.
master for every
class, that the
may
not run
about in idleness or occupy themselves in silly play
(inanes ludos), or be given over to other follies.
Consider these things most carefully,
son, to the
my
dearest
end that the fountain of all wholesome erudition may still be found flowing in the chief city of our nation."^ It is a strict school that
Alcuin wishes kept.
for the boys
it is
All the play and diversion
was
is
to be
found in their
lessons,
and
his
evidently Alcuin 's old practice as scholasticus
that
is
at
York
is
urged upon Eanbald.
it is
Yet
austerity
there
noteworthy that neither in this letter nor in any of his
not morose, and
writings a recommendation to use flogging or any
of the other punishments which finally became an
But was vanity. Still one can scarcely help thinking that some concession must have been made by Alcuin to the restless and sportive nature of boys in his own playful method of teaching, which verged again and again on jocoseness and pleasant banter. Another and quite
essential part of medieval school discipline.
for all that, the idea of play
different point
worth noticing
is
that the principle
of employing a separate master for each subject and
of dividing the pupils into appropriate classes
practised both at
York and Tours,
is
— though at the
In
was
palace
school
it
doubtful whether any such
sent to Britain.
organization was or could have been effected.
There were other
letters
lEp. 72Jaff€; 66 Migne.
'
ALCUm THE ABBAT OF TOURS
one
lie
77
exhorts ^Edilbert, a bishop in Northumbria,
to " instruct the youth diligently in the knowledge
of books," to keep alive "the light of knowledge" in his diocese, and to bear in mind that " for every
one
who would understand what
to
shun and what
a necessity."
*
to pursue, the study of holy books
is
In 797 he writes to the church and people of Canterbury, then distracted by civil and ecclesiastical dissensions, urging them to remember their former renown as a house not only of religion but of "the glory of philosophic study" as well.* It was apparently from Tours also that he wrote a
general letter of exhortation to the
land, in
monks
of Ire-
which he bears notable testimony to the Irish learning, with which, of course, he was out of sympathy so far as it encouraged speculative tendencies or departed from the Koman tradition.
He
recalls
how
in earlier
times
many
learned
masters had come from Ireland into Britain and
Gaul, and even into Italy, to the great advantage
But now the times are perilous, and therefore it behoves them to teach and learn the truth the more zealously, for many false teachers (jpseudodoctores) have arisen, introducing new and unheard-of opinions, and bent on getting glory for themselves by their novel teachings. " Therefore, most holy fathers, exhort your youth to learn the "However," traditions of the catholic doctors."
of the Church.
tain
The date of this letter is uncei^ Ep. 88 Jaffe 178 Migne. and may be earlier than Alcuin's removal to Tours. 3£p.86Jaff^; 71 Migne.
1
;
78
ALCUIN
he pointedly remarks, " the study of secular letters
Let grammar stand as the is not to be set aside. fundamental study for the tender years of infancy
and the other disciplines of philosophical subtlety be regarded as the several ascents of learning by which scholars may mount to the very summit of Thus with their increase evangelical perfection. there shall come an increase of the riches of years wisdom."^ of His correspondence in Frankland was meanwhile assiduously kept up, and in this way he was able to watch from Tours the course of affairs throughout The interests of the palace school the kingdom. engaged his attention, though he had ceased to be its master, and the condition of education in
general likewise continued to be a matter of constant concern, though Theodulf
his place as soon as he
had virtually taken
to Tours.
removed
His congratulations to Theodulf as the new minister of education, or
"father of the vineyards," as
A-lcuin fancifully styles him, are
is
embodied in what
It defies
probably the most variegated piece of allegorical
scriptural patchwork he ever composed.
adequate reproduction in English, unless accom-
panied with a separate note of explanation for almost every line. However, it is a letter of such
distinct importance as to need presentation at least
in part; for its playful vagaries contain not only
Alcuin's congratulations,
but his injunctions to promote Theodulf to the study of the old seven
1
Ep. 217 Jaff^; 225 Migne.
:
'
ALCUIN THE ABBAT OF TOUBS
liberal arts without
79
any admixture of new notions.
The " vineyards "
of the letter are the educational The " wine cellars " are interests of the kingdom.
the stores of learning in general, and the "old wine " or the " good wine which has been kept until
now "
until
is
the excellent wine of the liberal arts, " kept
to be broached in the age of Charles.
now"
is
This
the true feast of both bread and wine to
which Wisdom or Sapientia invites her followers
in the ninth chapter of Proverbs, as Alcuin explains in another letter, " the true wine which she mingles
for those that are bidden to her table
in the house she hath builded
which is spread on seven pillars." ^
It
With
this preface
we are prepared for a simplified
version of part of Alcuin's letter to Theodulf.
opens as follows " Albinus wisheth health to Theodulf, the great
prelate and father of the vineyards. " read in the Book of Chronicles that in the
We
time of David, the king after God's own heart, Zabdi was set 'over the king's wine-cellars.' ^ Now,
by the mercy of God, a second David is the ruler of a better people, and under him a nobler Zabdi is
set over the cellars
;
for the
king hath set his love
into the wine-cellars,'
upon him and 'brought him
that the
scholars
there wreathe him with him with the flagons * of that 'wine which maketh glad the heart of man.'*
flowers and 'comfort
'
may
lEp. 292Jaffe; 185 Migne.
2 I
* ^
Solomon's Song
ii
6.
Chronicles xxvii 27.
ii
Psalm civ
15.
s
Solomon's Song
4.
'
80
ALCUm
" So then, even
if
there be lacking 'bread which
^
strengtheneth man's heart, '
glad, for our
yet there
is
not lack-
ing in the cellars of Orleans the wine which maketh
hope is in the fruitful vine, and not any withered fig-tree.' Wherefore I, the new Jonathan, 'counsellor of our David and his man of
in
letters,
'
send this letter unto Zabdi, saying
:
Let
us arise early and see
how
fairly the vine flourishes
in 'the valley of Sorek';* let us 'tread out the
wine-press with shouting, '
wine-cellar
*
that the streams of the
"
may
be dispersed abroad. "
Thus
to the
this fanciful
commingling of serious and
playful exhortation in regard to Theodulf's duties
"vineyards" and "wine-presses" of learn-
ing proceeds, changing for a
not, *I cannot
moment
at the close
of the letter into apparent remonstrance,
rise,
"Say
if
and give thee," for even
'
thou hast not 'three loaves
'
*
of bread to lend, yet
by the blessing of Christ there at hand are 'the seven waterpots ' full of the 'good wine which has been kept until now, " and kept, as all know, to be mingled by 'the ruler of the feast ^^ who dwells in Tours. Therefore let the old wine still be kept, in order that no one may put 'new wine into the old
'
'
1
s
Psalm civ 15. Matthew xxi 19.
Chronicles xivii 32.
•
Luke
'
xi 5.
' I
This
is
Jonathan, the uncle of David, * Judges ivi 4.
*
6
^
John ii 6-7. Alcuin mxist have his seven waterpots for the liberal arts, though there
»
'
are only six in Scripture.
i"
Jeremiah xlviii Proverbs v 16.
33.
John
ii
10.
u John ii 9.
Luke
xi 7
'
ALCUIN THE ABBAT OF TOURS
bottles,'^
81
for
'no
man having drank
lie
old wine
straightway desireth new; for
is better.
'
saith:
The old
"
Happy
is
is
he that speaketh to one that hath ears
to hear.
Farewell,
my
dearest brother."*
;
for it is as far removed from the simplicity of style which often shows itself in Alcuin's writing as from the labored It is manner of his more learned discourses. a conscious attempt at an artificial manner of letter-writing, sometimes affected by scholars in that age, and is intended to gather together and display such allegorical hints of Scripture as might bear in favor of promoting the liberal arts; and what could be more convincing as argument than We may be sure that Theodulf had allegory? "ears to hear" and to heed its teachings; for the " paraphrastical " and "paradigmatic" epistolary touches * in which it abounds, and which were so dear to Alcuin, would be fully understood by Theodulf, who might well regard them as highly complimentary to his powers of literary appreciaThe exhortation to prefer the "old wine," tion. which Alcuin had mingled as " ruler of the feast," to any "new wine" that might be offered, was unnecessary in one respect, for TheoduK showed
This
no ordinary
letter
himself a vigorous supporter of the teachings of
his master.
Yet the caution was timely
;
for
new
teachers were appearing at the palace of Charles,
1
«
Luke V 37. Luke V 39.
« *
Ep. 153 Jaffe; 148 Migne. Ep. 177 Jafif€ 191 Migne.
;
82
ALCUIN
introducing strange notions, which were incompatible
with the teachings of Alcuin.
These were
certain Irish scholars
things, a
who
inculcated,
among
other
mode
of calculating Easter different
from
the tradition of Kome, and akin to that followed in
first sight this seems too comment, but the calculation of Easter was one of the questions upon which the East and West were hopelessly divided. Though not a capital question in itself, it was one of great
the eastern Church.
At
slight a matter to arouse
strategic importance as a test of ecclesiastical loyalty.
It
tradition of learning as delivered
Isidore,
had a similar importance in relation to the by Cassiodorus, and Bede, all faithful Latins for with
—
;
their doctrine of Easter the Irish scholars coupled
other teachings, and no doubt brought with the odious book of Martianus Capella,
— and who
them
knows what Greek books they may not likewise have brought with them? It is the irrepressible
conflict of tradition
in.
with speculation that is setting Alcuin wrote again and again to Charles, argu-
ing for the Roman method of calculating Easter and lamenting that such dark "Egyptian" teachings should have drifted in to blind the youth at the palace. Theodulf also wrote a satirical poem, setting forth the utter perverseness and worthlessness of the self-confident
scholar.
'^
Scotellus," or Irish
Charles, however, viewed the situation
to
more cheerfully and sought
debate with the
Scotelli,
draw Alcuin
into
perhaps hoping for no
small enjoyment from witnessing the contest.
But
ALCUm THE ABBAT
mood
OF TOURS
83
Alcuin preferred to stay at Tours.
He was
in
no
to be humiliated at the palace in his old age,
" the
and so he informs the king that
others
aged Entellus
left it for
has long since laid aside the cestus, and
who
are younger."^
"Of what
avail," he
exclaims, " would be the feebleness of your Flaccus
amid the clash
lions?""
Still
of
arms?
What
can the timid hare
do against the wild boars, or the lamb among the
he does not conceal his annoyance
or his surprise that such foolish teachings should
have been given any audience. As for himself, he says, "These silly little questions beset my ears
insects that swarm at the windows in summer,"' and therefore he expresses great surprise that Charles should have listened to them, and
like the
exhorts
him
to
summon
to his side able defenders
of the faith, lest this latest heresy spread to the
distraction of the
Next
after Charles, his chief correspondent
Church and his own kingdom.* was
advise as to the care of all
his beloved friend Arno, archbishop of Salzburg,
whom
he did not
fail to
the parishes in his diocese, insisting that there
establishment of primary wherein the elements should be faithfully taught.* In one letter, he ventures out of his depth into metaphysics, and attempts to explain to Arno the distinction between the terms "substance,"
should be a general
schools,
1
«
Ep. Ep. Ep.
98, p. 408 Jaffe
98, p. 96, p.
;
82 Migne. 82 Migne. 83 Migne.
412 Jaffe
;
«Ep,
«
398Jaff^; 80 Migne.
420 Jaffe
; ;
99, p.
• Ep. 91 JaS^
94 Migne.
84
ALCUm
"essence," "subsistence," and "nature." But he was not a philosopher, and his observations on "essence" are enough to establish this fact.
reference to God, he
"Essence," he says, "is properly spoken of with who always is what he is,
and who said unto Moses, *I am that I am.' Now, God alone truly is, inasmuch as he is unchangeable; for of whatsoever
is
changeable
we cannot
it
say that
it
truly
is
in every respect, because
can
become what it is not, and hence not be what it In still another letter he justifies to Arno is."^ the reading of the classical poets, quoting Jerome
to support him.
After citing Jerome's saying,
is
"Even
is to
the gold which
found on the dunghill
of
be prized and to be deposited in the Lord's
treasury," he adds by
way
comment: "It was
the blessed apostle Paul himself
transferred
ing,
who found
the
gold of wisdom in the dung of the poets, and
it
to the treasury of ecclesiastical learnall the
and so have
holy doctors done,
who were
instructed after his example."'^
It seems strange
after such a letter to find Alcuin's attitude so ascetic
in his last years towards the poet Virgil.' In his boy-
hood he loved
to read Virgil
more than he did the
in respect to
Latin Psalms, and his
own poetry, both
largely
metre and diction,
source.
is
drawn from the same
his pupils that the
Yet he afterwards told
poetry of the Bible was sufficient for them, and
1
«
*
Ep. 209 Jaff^ 161 Migne. Ep. 147 Jaffe 117 Migne. Monumenta Alcuiniana, p.
;
;
6.
ALCUIN THE ABBAT OF TOURS
85
that they should run no risks from the effeminating verses of Virgil.
Once Sigulf had ventured
it
to read
his Virgil secretly, contrary to Alcuin's injunction,
and when Alcuin discovered
he overwhelmed
him with the alarming
gilian!
question, " How
now
!
Vir-
Why
is
it
that against
my
advice,
and
apart from my knowledge, you have desired to read Virgil? " Sigulf cast himself at Alcuin's feet in
abject penitence.
terely,
His master reproved him aus-
but finally forgave him, adding his caution
never to do so any more.^
Even Eigbod, though
archbishop of Treves, did not escape his reproof.
"Has the love of Virgil," he complains, "taken away all remembrance of me? Oh! that my name Then indeed should I be ever before were Virgil
!
your eyes, and you would ponder my words with deep regard. But Flaccus is gone, and Virgil has come. Oh! that the four Gospels and not the twelve iEneads might fill your thoughts " " As for himself, when he sends to Rigbod for books, he begs for very different reading; namely, a Homily
!
of St. Leo and a treatise of the Venerable
Bede on
the
Book
of Tobias.'
Alcuin's seclusion at Tours was broken by a visit from Charles. In the spring of 800* the king had tarried some days at the monastery, in company
1
Monumenta Alcuiniana,
pp. 24, 25.
2Ep. 216 JafEe; 169 Migne. Alcuin's "Aeneods" for "Aeneids" is only too characteristic of the decadent state of
Latin in his time.
»
Ep. 197
Jaffe'; 171
Migne.
103 Migne.
*
Ep. 133, Note
1, Jaffe';
86
ALCUIN
with his Queen Liutgard, whose health was rapidly failing. She died there early in June of the same
year and was buried in
the
adjoining church.
Charles himself returned in the same month to
Aachen by way of Orleans and Paris, accompanied by Alcuin/ who left his monastic retreat for a
short time in order to hold a public dispute with
Felix of Urgel regarding the Adoptionist heresy.
In this
discussion Felix acknowledged
himself
completely vanquished by Alcuin's arguments.
the autumn approached, Charles prepared to Rome. Alcuin had been invited to make the journey with him. But the infirmities of age, which were daily growing upon him, coupled with
As
go to
his instinctive aversion to participating in political
affairs,
except as a peacemaker, kept
him
at Tours.
Charles went to Rome, and on Christmas day was
crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Leo, thus establishing the foundations of There is abunsocial order for the middle ages.
dant evidence for supposing that Charles suspected
the Pope's intentions, though not apprised of the
time or occasion when they were to be carried into effect. It is also quite evident that Alcuin was
aware of the significance of this journey to Rome, and perhaps it is not too much to say that he had secretly advised it, and by his correspondence with Rome was influential in bringing about the coronation. When Charles returned from Rome to Aachen as Emperor, Alcuin made it his first care to send
1
Ep. 147,
p. 658,
Note
1,
JafE€; 117 Migne.
ALCUm THE ABBAT OF TOURS
to
87
the Gospels,
him by a messenger a superbly written copy of made at the monastery in Tours, as
*
the worthiest contribution he could offer to the
"splendor of the imperial power."
As Alcuin's end drew
his affairs,
near, he set in order all
naming
Tours.
his pupil Fridugis as his suc-
cessor
at
A
year or more before his
death he wrote a letter to Charles, bidding him farewell, invoking manifold blessings upon him
for all his goodness, and reminding him of the supreme importance of preparation for death and the day of judgment.'* Other letters written about the same time show how wholly his mind was engrossed with the thought of his coming departure. The opening of the year 804 found him greatly weakened in health. A fever soon set in, under which his remaining strength gradually It was his desire that he might ebbed away. linger until the day of Pentecost should come. And so it happened; for Alcuin died at dawn of that May morning,' just after matins had been
sung.
He was
carried to his burial in the church of St.
Martin, near the monastery, with every manifestaplace for his repose.
It was a fitting Notwithstanding his cherished hope that it might be his lot to die and be buried at York, his works which followed him
tion of reverence and affection.
1
3
Ep. 205 Jaffe; 131 Migne. Ep. 193 Jaff^ 134 Migne.
;
«
May 19,
80*.
88
ALCUm
were chiefly his labors in Frankland, and in Frankland Tours was the scene of his last, and in some ways his greatest service. It was also a spot where other appropriate memories clustered. There St. Martin had come as a founder of monasticism among the Gauls. There Charles Martel had delivered the Frank from the Moslem. Thither Charles the Great had journeyed to take counsel with Alcuin before he went to Rome, to return as monarch of the Holy Roman Empire. There his best beloved queen, Liutgard, the devoted friend of Alcuin, had died and was buried; and there, too, if the tradition be true, Alcuin pointed out to Charles the young prince Lewis as his successor. And yet, when the news of his death was borne to distant York, and the brethren there were chanting prayers for his repose, they might easily believe his longing desire that his soul might rest among them, wherever his body lay, was then being fulfilled.
CHAPTER V
T^E EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUm
Alcuin's writings have been preserved to us in and may be classified under fourfold division. First come his theological a works, which embrace the greater part, perhaps two-thirds, of all that he wrote. This theological
tolerable completeness,
portion
may
in turn be divided into four parts,
and practical, and Of the remaining third of his writings, the major part is embraced in his epistles, and least in extent are the didactic treatises and poems which make up the rest.
exegetical, dogmatic, liturgical
lives of the saints.
It will thus
Alcuin's writings have
be seen that the greater part of little connection with the
history of education, and yet, even his theological
works have incidental interest in this respect.
Besides a few scanty gleanings from his exegetical
writings, there are
On
the Virtues
and
Vices
two of his practical treatises, and On the Nature of the
which have a general connection with edubut beyond this there is nothing to be found. The epistles are of high value for the general history of the times, and more particularly for the abundant light which they shed upon the
Soul,
cation,
activity of Alcuin in his relation to the restoration
89
go
ALCUIN
The poems have a lesser value, of school-learning. but contain important help for the history of the
school at York, where Alcuin was bred, and for his
later career in Frankland.
But the chief
interest
centres in his specifically didactic writings, for
they contain most fully his general views on education as well as separate treatises on some of the
liberal arts.
Let
it
be remarked at the outset that Alcuin
is
rarely an original writer, but usually a compiler
adapter,
and
and even at times a
literal transcriber of
other men's work.
learning, either
He
adds nothing to the sum of
does
is
by invention or by recovery of what
has been
lost.
What he
to reproduce or
adapt from earlier authors such parts of their writings as could be appreciated by the age in which
he
all
lived.
Accordingly, while he must be refused
the credit that belongs to a courageous
mind
which advances beyond what has been known, he must yet be highly esteemed for the invaluable service he rendered as a transmitter and conserver of the learning that was in danger of perishing, and as the restorer and propagator of this learning in a great empire, after it had been extinct for generations. A passage from the letter dedicating his commentary on the Gospel of John to Gisela and Rotrud,
states so aptly the timorously conservative attitude
which appears in
writes:
all his literary efforts,
it
is
educational
or otherwise, that
worth citing here.
He
store-
"I have reverently traversed the
houses of the early fathers, and whatever I have
THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUIN
been able to find there, I have sent of
taste.
it
91
for
you to
have sought help from St. Augustine, who has devoted the greatest study to expounding the most holy words of this holy gospel. Next, I have drawn somewhat from the lesser works
First of
all,
I
of St. Ambrose, that most holy doctor, and like-
wise from the Homilies of the distinguished father,
Gregory the Great.
I
have also taken much from
the Homilies of the blessed presbyter Bede, and
from other holy fathers, whose, interpretations I have here set forth. For I have preferred to employ their thoughts and words rather than to venture anything of my own audacity, even if the curiosity of my readers were to approve of it, and by a most cautious manner of writing I have made it my care, with the help of God, not to set down anything contrary to the thoughts of the fathers." Fortunately for his theological works, he depends mainly on the really great fathers of the Latin Church. Most of what he writes comes from Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose and Gregory the Great, while Bede is the chief of his later authorities. Of the Greek fathers, however, he knows nothing, except through Latin versions, and of these he makes no considerable use beyond drawing on a translation of Chrysostom to help in composing his commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. His literary sources are all Latin, nor is there any Greek to be found in what he wrote, apart from some citations copied from Jerome and occasional Greek words from elsewhere. On the educational
92
ALCUIN
side he depends mainly on Isidore and Bede, but with subsidiary help from Cassiodorus and the treatise
On
the Categories falsely ascribed to
Augustine.
He knew
of him.
tioned.
made only indirect use Martianus Capella is not so much as menof Boethius, but
The separate educational treatises of Alcuin of undoubtedly genuine character are the following:
On Chrammar, On Orthography, On Rhetoric and the Virtues, On Dialectics, a Disputation with Pepin, and a tedious astronomical treatise, entitled De Cursu et
Saltu LuncB ac Bissexto.
to
him with
less certainty
Three others are ascribed On the Seven Arts,
:
A
Disputation for Boys, and the so-called Propositions
of Alcuin.
and most important of these is his dramfalls into two parts, the one a dialogue between Alcuin and his pupils on philosophy and liberal studies in general, and the other a dialogue between a young Saxon and a Frank on grammar, also conducted in the presence of Alcuin. The former dialogue is an original composition and contains in brief compass Alcuin's views on the end and method of education, and on the duty of studying the liberal arts, to which the entire
First
mar, which
dialogue serves as a general introduction.
"Most
learned master," says one of the disciples, opening
the dialogue,
"we have often heard you say that Philosophy was the mistress of all the virtues, and alone of all earthly riches never made its
possessor miserable.
We
confess that
you have
THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUIN
incited us
93
by such words to follow after this exceland we desire to know what is the sum of its supremacy and by what steps we may make ascent thereunto. Our age is yet a tender one and too weak to rise unhelped by your hand. We know, indeed, that the strength of the mind is
lent felicity,
in the heart, as the strength of the eyes
is
in the
head.
Now
our eyes, whenever they are flooded
sun, or
by the splendor of the presence of any light,
are able to discern
by reason of the most
clearly whatever is presented to their gaze,
but without this access of light they must remain in
darkness.
So also the mind
there be any one
is
able to receive
wisdom
if
who
will enlighten it."
Alcuin benignantly replies, " My sons, ye have said well in comparing the eyes to the mind, and may
the light that lighteneth every
that ye
man
that cometh
into this world enlighten your minds, to the
end
its
may
be able to
make
progress in philoso-
phy, which, as ye have well said, never deserts
possessor."
and then renew their entreaty in the same figurative and
disciples assent to this
The
flowery manner.
"Verily,
Master," they urge,
of
"we know
liberally
that
we must ask
not.
Him who
giveth
Yet we likewise need to be instructed slowly, with many a pause and hesitation, and like the weak and feeble to be led by slow steps until our strength shall grow. The flint naturally contains in itself the fire that will come forth when the flint is struck. Even so there is in the human mind the light of knowledge
and upbraideth
94
ALCniN
flint,
that will remain hidden like the spark in the
unless
it
be brought forth by the repeated efforts
of a teacher."
to point out to
Alcuin answers
:
" It
is
easy indeed
if
you the path of wisdom,
only ye
for
love
it
for the sake of God,
for knowledge,
purity of heart, for understanding the truth, yea,
and for
itself.
Seek
it
not to gain the praise of
men
or the honors of this world, nor yet for the
deceitful pleasures of riches, for the
more these
things are loved, so
those
much
the farther do they cause
who
seek them to depart from the light of
truth and knowledge."
After this elaborately courteous opening the dialogue proceeds to show that true and eternal happiness,
and not transitory pleasure,
is
the proper end
for a rational being to set before him,
and that
this
happiness consists in the things that are proper and
alien to
itself, rather than in what is "That," says Alcuin, "which is sought from without is alien to the soul, as is the gather-
peculiar to the soul
it.
ing together of riches, but that which the soul
is
is
proper to
what
is
within, namely, the graces of
wisdom.
Therefore,
man," he
calls
out in fervid
apostrophe, "if thou art master of thyself, thou
shalt have
losing,
what thou shalt never have to grieve at and what no calamity shall be able to take
away.
for that
is it to
Why then, O
mortals, do ye seek without
which ye have within?
How much
!
better
be adorned within than without "
naturally
inquire,
"
What,
then, are the adornments of the soul?" the disciples
and Alcuin answers:
THE EDUCATIONAL WEITINGS OF ALCUIN
" Wisdom
is
95
the chief adornment, and this I urge
you
to seek above all things."
nal because
Alcuin then explains that wisdom is itself eterit is an inseparable property of the soul, which is immortal, and in this differs from
everything else of a secular character.
is
But its The scholar will not gain his reward without study, any more than the soldie?
pursuit
laborious.
without fighting or the farmer without plowing. It is an old proverb that the root of learning is bitter but the fruit is sweet, and so St. Paul asserts
that " every discipline at the present
is
not joyous
but grievous, yet afterwards
able fruit of righteousness to
cised in it."
it
yieldeth the peace-
them that were exeris
Progress in secular knowledge
ascents, step
to be
and is to lead to " the better ways of wisdom, which conduct to "May the divine grace guide and life eternal."
made by slow
by
step,
lead us," exclaims Alcuin, "into the treasures of
spiritual
wisdom, that ye
;
may be
intoxicated at the
fountain of divine plenty
that there
may
be within
you a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. But, inasmuch as the Apostle enjoins that everything be done decently and in order, I think that ye should be led by the steps of erudition from lower to higher things until your wings gradually grow stronger, so that ye may mount on them to view the loftier visions of the pure ether." The disciples are overwhelmed and humbly answer: "Master, raise us from the earth by your hand aud set our feet upon the ascents of wisdom."
96
ALCTHN
Alcuin accordingly proceeds to set before his pupils the seven ascents of the liberal arts in the following manner: "We have read how Wisdom herself saith by the mouth of Solomon, Wisdom
'
hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars.' Now although this saying pertains to the Divine
Wisdom which builded for Himself a house (that is, the body of Christ in the Virgin's womb), and endued it with the
seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, or
Church, which
these gifts, yet
pillars
is
may mean
the
the House of
is
God
it
that shines with
Wisdom
also built
upon the seven
of liberal letters, and
can in no wise
any perfect knowledge, unless it Here is a distinct advance on Alcuin 's part beyond the Augustine had earlier writers on the liberal arts. regarded them with qualified approval because they were helpful towards understanding divine truth. Cassiodorus saw in addition a mystical hint of their excellence in the fact that they were seven, and fortified his position by the text, "Wisdom hath
afford us access to
be set upon these seven pillars, or ascents."
hewn out her seven Alcuin takes up the text from Proverbs quoted by Cassiodorus, and finds in it the liberal arts as a matter of direct interpretation. Sapientia, or Wisdom, who had builded her house and hewn
builded her house, she hath
columns."
out her seven
pillars,
he mystically explains
first
of
Christ the Divine
Wisdom and next
of the Church,
each endued with the seven gifts of the Spirit, and
then proceeds to his third application, which
is
that
THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUIN
97
Sapientia, or Wisdom, which in the speech of his time often meant learning, was built upon the seven liberal arts. Augustine found the arts out-
side of Scripture, but
deemed them helpful towards
understanding
gets
it.
Cassiodorus found in Scripture
It needs not to
a mystical hint as to their excellence, and Alcuin
them out of Scripture
itself.
be told
arts
how influential such an
interpretation
would
if
be on the fortunes of secular learning; for
the
were once found in the Scriptures, there was no way of getting them out of the Church. Henceforth the prescriptive utterances
of
Tertullian,
though echoed once and again down the middle ages,^ could never dominate the Church.
But
let
us return to the dialogue.
us,
renew their request: "Open to
often promised,
discipline."
as
The pupils you have
the seven ascents of theoretical Alcuin replies: "Here, then, are the ascents of which ye are in search, and that ye
may
ever be as eager to ascend them as ye
now
are
dia-
to see them.
They
are grammar,
rhetoric,
lectics, arithmetic,
geometry, music, and astrology.
On
these the philosophers bestowed their leisure
and their study." Then he adds with a boldness which might well have alarmed him: "By reason of these philosophers the catholic teachers and
defenders of our faith have proved themselves
1
As
late as the thirteenth century
we
read in a regulation of
the Dominican order:
studeat, et si
teat,
"In
libris
gentilium philosopkorum non
ad horam
suscipiat saeculares scientias,
non addi'
nee arte* quaa liberalea vocant."
"
96
ALCUIN
superior to all the chief heretics in public contro-
versy," and closes with the exhortation: "Let your
youthful steps,
shall bring
my
dearest sons, run daily along
these paths until a riper age and a stronger
mind
you
to the heights of
Holy
Scripture.
Plainly in Alcuin's mind the arts were seven and only seven. They are the necessary ascents to the higher wisdom of the Scriptures. Not the
fact that they are simply useful to the Scriptures,
but indispensable,
in Alcuin's eyes.
is
Much
is
what gives them such value of the rhetoric in which
childish enough, but
it all it is
his ideas exfoliate
impossible not to see behind
spirit,
a pure and gentle
of learning he
who valued
the scanty
sum
possessed for no lesser reasons than the love of
God, purity of soul, knowledge of truth, and even
for its
own
sake, as against
any pursuit of learn-
ing for the vulgar ends of wealth, popularity or
secular honor.
The second dialogue
grammatical.
in the treatise is properly
Two
of Alcuin's pupils, a
Saxon
lately
and a Frank, are beginners
it
in the study, or, to put
in Alcuin's flowery language, "
They but
rushed upon the thorny thickets of grammatical
The Frank is a boy of fourteen years and the Saxon of fifteen. The master presides over their interrogations and answers. It is decided that grammar must begin with the consideration of what a letter is, though Alcuin stops on the way to expound the nature of words. It is defined as " the least part of an articulate sound, " The letters
density."
:
THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUIN
99
are the " elements " of language because they are
ultimate and indivisible, and are built up
syllables,
first
into
and thereafter successively into words, Letters are of two sorts, clauses, and sentences. vowels and consonants, and are defined as follows "The vowels are uttered by themselves and of
themselves make syllables.
selves
The consonants
can-
not be uttered by themselves, nor can they of them-
make
syllables."
But
this sapient definition
though accepted by the pupils, does not contain all that is to be said. There is an occult reason why the alphabet is divided into vowels and consonants, as Alcuin at once informs them. " The vowels," he says, "are, as it were, the souls, and the consonants, the bodies of words." "Now the soul moves both itself and the body, but the body Such, then, are is immovable apart from the soul. the consonants without the vowels. They may indeed be written by themselves, but they can neither be uttered nor have any power apart froin vowels." This explanation seems to satisfy them, for they pursue the matter no further. The peculiarities of the consonants are then discussed very much in the same manner, and the syllable is next taken up. It is defined as " a sound expressed in letters (vox litteralis), which has been uttered with one accent and at one breath." The discussion of sylla-
by
antithesis,
bles falls into four parts, accent (accentus), breath-
ings (spiritus), quantity (tempus), and the
number of
constituent letters.
After these are discussed, the
pupils entreat that before proceeding further they
100
ALCum
be furnished with a definition of grammar.
tells
may
Alcuin accordingly
them that
"
Grammar
is
the
science of written sounds
(litteralis
scientia),
the
guardian of correct speaking and writing.
It is
founded on nature, reason, authority, and custom." It has been well observed that this shrunken notion
of Alcuin as contrasted wide conception of the study that prewith the vailed among the grammarians of the later Roman
of
grammar on the part
Empire
is
thoroughly characteristic of the intellecInstead of being
tual feebleness of the later time.
both the art of writing and speaking, and also the
study of the great poets and orators,
it
has
now
become only the former of these, a childish, techniThis appears more plainly cal and barren study.
as
we advance
of the parts of grammar.
syllables,
feet,
to Alcuin 's alarming enumeration They are " words, letters,
clauses,
sayings,
speeches,
definitions,
accents, punctuation marks, critical marks,
orthographies,
analogies,
etymologies,
glosses,
distinctions, barbarisms, solecisms, faults, meta-
plasms, figurations, tropes, prose, metres, fables,
and histories." Words, letters and
discussed,
syllables, the first three of
Alcuin's twenty-six parts of grammar, have been
and each of the others
is
next defined.
Alcuin then proceeds to the consideration of the
different parts of speech in the following order:
the noun,
bers
its
genders,
its
numbers,
" figures "
and
cases; the pronoun,
genders, "figures,"
its
num-
and cases} then the verb with
modes,
THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUIN
^
101
"figures," inflections and numbers; and t'he adverb'
with
its
"figures."
Lastly he treats of the par-
ticiple,
the conjunction, the preposition and the
interjection.
By
" figures " Alcuin
means the
facts
relating to the simplicity, composition or deriva-
tion of words.
verbs, the
is
Thus,
is
under his
"figures"
of
word cupio
in simple figure, concupio
is
in composite figure, and concupisco
figure,
in deri-
vative
because
it
comes from concupio.
parts of speech
is
The whole treatment
of the
similarly feeble in spirit and almost entirely restricted to etymology, so that Alcuin's
is really
Grammar
in his
devoid of orthography, syntax and prosis
ody.
Whatever
excellent in any
way
Grammar ought
Alcuin follows.
to be credited to Donatus,
whom
Isidore also furnishes
him many
a
definition,
but wherever this happens the treabe childish.
tise is apt to
suffice.
An
example or two may
is
The derivation of
"because the
littera
said to be
from
so
legitera,
littera
prepares a path
for readers (leg entibus iter)."
Feet in poetry are
named
so on.
walk on them, " and Yet his book had great fame, and Notker,
it,
" because the metres
writing a century later, praised
chus,
saying, " Alcuin
has made such a grammar that Donatua, NicomaDositheus and our
own
Priscian seem as
nothing when compared with him."
In the manuscript copies of the Grammar there
appear to be some slight parts missing at the end, so that it may have been more extended than we
suppose J but there
is
no ground for thinking
it
102
ALCUIN
covered more than etymology.
next work
However, Alcuin's on orthography, and is properly a pendant to his Chammar. It is a short manual
is
list
containing a
of words, alphabetically arranged,
with comments on their proper spelling, pronunciation and meanings, and with remarks on their correct use, drawn to some extent from a treatise by Bede on the same subject. It is a sort of Antibarbarus, a help towards securing accuracy of form and propriety of use in the employment of Latin words, and must have been serviceable in the instruction of youth, but more so in the copying of ancient manuscripts.
believe
We may
reasonably
that
Alcuin's scribes in the
monastery
of Tours, busily engaged in recovering one and
another patristic and classical writer, were guided
his book in the purification of the copies they made, and for which the monastery at Tours became so famous. "Let him who would publish the sayings of the ancients read me, for he who follows me not will speak without regard to
by
law,"^
is
the translation of the couplet which
stands at the head of the Orthography and indiIt is Alcuin's attempt to purge contemporary Latin of its barbarisms. He puts "Write vinea" he his comments oddly enough. says, "if you mean a vine, with i in the first
cates its purpose.
syllable
and
e in
the second.
But
if
pardon, write venia with e in the
1
first syllable
you mean and
Me legat antiquas vult qui proferre loqaelas. Me qui nou sequitur, yult sine lege loqui.
THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUIN
i
103
Write vacca with a v, if you mean with a 6 if you mean a berry." In the same way be careful to write vellus with a V to mean wool, and bellus, if you mean fair. Similarly, when writing, do not confuse vel with fel which means gall, or with Bel, the heathen god. By no means consider henificus, a man of good deeds, So bibo and vivo the same as venificus, a poisoner. Such examples indicate that are not to be mixed. Alcuin had to struggle against " rusticity " in pronunciation as well as in writing, a rusticity which was due to the modifying influence of the barbarous Tudesque upon the pronouncing of Latin, an influence which, even in Alcuin 's time, was altering the forms of words in a manner which presaged
in the second.
a cow, but write
it
—
—
the final demolition of Latin prior to the rise of
French.
Some
lebs,
of the definitions are quite amusing.
is
Coe-
a bachelor,
defined as "one
who
is
on his
way ad
caelum," evidently the true
monk.
is
"Write
it is
oequor with a diphthong," for the reason that
derived from aqua.
Malus, a mast,
to
have a
long
a,
but " a mdlus homo ought to have a short a."
It is
cuin' s didactic
so, for
on the Grammar and Orthography that Alfame principally rests, and justly
in spite of their puerile character they did
more good service than anything else he wrote. Let it be remembered that the tall, blue-eyed barbarians, whom Alcuin was aiming to civilize, were but little children when it came to school-learning. Let it also be remembered that Alcuin, divesting himself
104
ALCUIN
humbly
and the
of all vanity and conceit, wisely and even
set before
them what they could
had
learn,
start.
only thing they could learn at the
his master, Charles,
Even
bend
to toil painfully to
his fingers, stiffened with long use of the sword, to
the clerkly task of writing, and confessed that he
acquired the art with great difficulty.
The dialogue On Rhetoric and the Virtues has two interlocutors Charles and Alcuin, and was composed in response to a request from the king. Alcuin instructs him in the elements of
for its
the rhetorical art with special reference to
its
applications in the conduct and settlement of dis-
putes in civil
affairs,
and
closes
with a short de-
scription of the four cardinal virtues,
justice,
— prudence,
and temperance. It is, therefore, not strictly a book on rhetoric, but rather on It is based on rhetorical writits applications. ings of Cicero, which are rehandled by Alcuin, and always with loss and injury to his originals. The hand of Isidore is likewise visible in places, and contributes to the general deterioration. If the Grammar was rudimentary and ill-arranged, the Rhetoric suffers yet more from its miscellaneous presentation of ill-digested bits of rhetoric, and from its greater dulness of style. Moreover, it is less jocose in spirit than are parts of the Grammar, though Alcuin's specimen of sophistical reasoning, which he produces for the instruction of the king,
fortitude
is
indeed comical.
" What art thou? " asks Alcuin,
and after Charles answers, "I am a man (homo)," the dialogue goes on as follows
:
—
THE EDUCATIONAL WKITINGS OF ALCUIN
''
106
Alcuin.
See
how thou
so?
hast shut
me
in.
Charles.
How
Alcuin.
thou,
If thou sayest I
am
not the same as
and that I
am
a man,
it
follows that thou art
not a man.
Charles.
It does.
But how many syllables has homo9 Charles. Two. Alcuin. Then art thou those two syllables?
Alcuin.
Charles.
Surely not; but
why
dost thou reason
thus?
Alcuin.
craft
That thou mayest understand sophistical
and see how thou canst be forced to a conI see and understand from
clusion.
Charles.
what was
that
granted at the start, both that I
am homo and
and that I can be shut up conclusion that I am these two syllables. the to But I wonder at the subtlety with which thou hast
homo has two
syllables,
led me on, first to conclude that thou wert not a man, and afterward of myself, that I was two
syllables."
After the Rhetoric comes the Dialectics, which
in part extracted or abridged
is
from Isidore, who in his turn had taken from Boethius, and in part copied almost solidly from the supposed work of Augustine on the Categories of Aristotle. If possible, it is less original than the Rhetoric, but is an attempt to at least what its title indicates, say something about dialectics. However, as the age of medieval logic had not yet begun in earnest,
—
106
ALCUIN
Alcuin's treatise was perhaps as
much
as the times
would
bear,
especially in view of the existing
Church to the In conjunction with the Chammar and Rhetoric, it may be taken as constituting such instruction in the trivium as was given
indifference or antagonism in the
subtleties of Aristotle.
in the palace school.
Interesting in its
way
as a specimen of Alcuin's
teaching
is
his dialogue written for Pepin, then a years,
young prince of sixteen
and entitled The
Disputation of Pepin, the Most Noble and Royal It rainbles Youth, with Alhinus the Scholastic.
without plan and allegorizes without restraint.
Parts of
it
run as follows
:
—
"Pepin.
Alhinus.
What What What What
is
is
writing?
of history.
The guardian
Pepin.
Alhinus.
language?
of the soul.
The betrayer The tongue.
is
Pepin.
generates language?
the tongue?
of the air.
AlMnus.
Pepin.
AJbinu^.
The whip
is
Pepin.
What
What
air?
life.
Alhinus.
The guardian of
is life?
Pepin.
Alhinus.
of death.
The joy
is
of the happy; the expectation
Pepin.
Alhinus.
What
death?
An
inevitable event; an uncertain jour-
ney; tears for the living; the probation of wills;
the stealer of men.
THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUIN
Pepin.
Alhinus.
107
What
The
is
man?
slave of death j a passing traveler;
a stranger in his place.
Pepin.
What
is
man
like?
Alhinus.
An
apple."
Let us understand this short and sudden definiAlcuin means that man hangs like an apple on a tree without being able to know when he is to
tion.
fall.
The questions on natural phenomena are not
instructive " Pepin.
:
—
less
What
is
water?
a cleanser of
filth.
Alhinus.
A supporter of life;
is fire?
Pepin. things
What
Alhinus.
;
Excessive heat; the nurse of growing
cold?
the ripener of crops.
Pepin.
What
The
is
Alhinus.
febricity of our members.*
is
Pepin.
Alhinus.
tion
What
frost?
The persecutor of plants; the destrucof leaves; the bond of the earth; the source of
waters.
Pepin.
Alhinus.
What
Dry
is
snow?
the winter?
water.
is
Pepin.
What
The
Alhinus.
exile of
is
summer.
Pepin.
Alhinus.
What
The
the spring?
the
painter of the earth.
is
Pepin.
What
1
autumn?
Alhinus.
The bam
of the year."
is
This " cold "
apparently a chilL
108
ALCUIN
sort,
After more of this same
the dialogue rapidly
runs into puzzles and then closes.
The
treatise
De Cursu
et
Saltu Lunce ac Bissezto
needs no special notice.
It deals
with the method
special
is is
of calculating the changes of the
moon with
reference to the determination of Easter, and
compiled for the instruction of the king.
the principal authority.
Bede
There remain for consideration the three works
first is entitled
The to Alcuin. On the Seven Arts, and is a fragment derived from the work of Cassiodorus on the same subject. But only the first two parts, grammar and
somewhat doubtfully attributed
and they are in part copied and in part abridged from their original. Alcuin may have taken them after his manner from Cassiodorus, without any thought of laying claim to the production as his own. But whether he did this or not, the fragment is useful in that it shows that the book of Cassiodorus On the Arts and Disciplines of Liberal Letters was consulted in the time of Alcuin. The so-called Disputation of the Boys is likewise doubtful. It is a set of questions and answers on Scriptural subjects and may at least serve as another example of the catechetical method of that time. Much more interesting is the set of puzzles
rhetoric, are described,
entitled TTie Propositions of Alcuin, the Teacher of
the
Emperor Charles
of Youth.
copied.
the Great, for Whetting the Wit Unfortunately, the Venerable Bede had
is
written just such a treatise, which
here closely
But
this
need not weigh against the proba-
THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUIN
bility of Alcuin's taking
109
and using it. But whetlier he did really do so, or whether copyists attributed it to him, is a matter of little moment, for it well
represents the character of the teaching of the time.
It
is,
in fact, not unlikely that these are the prop-
which Alcuin enclosed in a letter to Charles and styled " certain figures of arithmetical
ositions
subtlety sent for the sake of amusement."
Charles
with Alcuin "through the plains of arithmetical art," and Alcuin speaks in one of his poems of " studying the
himself
refers
to
his
excursions
fair
positiones consist in the
cises, all
forms of numbers" with Charles. The promain of very simple exersolved by painfully rudimentary methods.
of
Not one
mula.
them
exhibits an
apprehension on
idea or for-
Alcuin's part of any mathematical
Forty-five of the fifty-three propositions
may, by courtesy, be styled exercises in reckoning. Each one is twofold in its structure, containing the propositio and its attached solutio. They are put in the style of a master towards his pupils, the proposition generally culminating in some such formula as "let him solve this who can" (solvat
qui potest), or, " let
him
that understandeth say
how
able
we must
answer."
divide," or simply, "let
him who
is
The
propositions themselves are various,
all
but are confined to a few kinds of questions,
in concrete form
sionally there is
put
and sometimes jocosely. Occano regard paid to the probability
of the state of things pictured in the proposition.
Thus a king
is
represented as gathering an army
110
ALCUIN
one
in geometrical progression,
man
in the first
town, two in the second, four in the third, eight in the fourth, and so on through thirty towns.
total
is
The
Of
1,073,741,823
soldiers,
an army whose
pupil.
number might well amuse the imperial
course Alcuin
is
entirely ignorant in this problem of
any formula for the sum of a geometrical progression, and so he proceeds to count it all out. The
solutions are alarmingly infantile in their methods.
Roman, and this adds enormously to the slowness of working the examples. The only processes employed are the simplest operations of addition, multiplication, and division, commonly neglecting all " remainders " in division, and there is rarely any use of subtraction. Common fractions
are of a very elementary sort are at times used, but no
fractional symbols are employed.
The numerals
They
are spoken
of as "the half," "the half of the half," "the third
part," "the sixth part,"
and "the eleventh part."
They
are not treated as fractions, but as divisors.
" Aliquot parts "
frequently figure in construct-
ing the
puzzles,
and there are some examples
of
triangles,
of finding areas
always
isosceles,
and
of quadrangular and
is
"round"
figures.
His
forty-second proposition
unique, in being clever.
There is a ladder with one hundred steps. One dove is on the first step, two on the second, three on the third, and so on. How many doves are on the ladder? On the first and ninety-ninth steps there are accordingly one hundred doves, and so on the second and ninety-eighth steps. Proceeding thus
THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUIN
111
through the pairs of steps, we find forty-nine pairs of steps, each containing one hundred doves, with
the fiftieth and hundredth steps omitted, which
last contain jointly
one hundred and
fifty doves.
fifty.
The
total is accordingly five
thousand and
In this example Alcuin unconsciously goes through the process which underlies arithmetical progression.
Some
of the propositions are properly alge-
braical,
involving
the
simple equation
in
one
unknown quantity, but of course he is not aware of this and works them out mechanically. Not only are the methods of solution employed
so crude, but no principle of arithmetic ever seems
to
dawn upon
his mind.
is
Cumbrous manipulation
his only accomplishment.
is
of particular problems
The
crete
character of most of the problems solved
depressing to think about.
and meant to be witty.
Of course they are conThey are " ad acuendos
it is
juvenes."
They
are "figures of arithmetical subt-
lety" meant to whet the wit of youth, but
pigs, as one
surely startling to read of a sty that holds 262,304
structed,
;
which some unknown quidam has consow and a litter of seven and all this invented to get an example in multiplication. Other examples are equally silly without being funny. Quadrangular houses are to
—
starting with one
be put into a triangular city so as to
fill
the triangle
completely, or into a "round" city with a similar
result,
the answers being worked out in entire
impossibility in-
unconsciousness of the logical
volved.
Leaving the semi-arithmetical exercises^
"
112
ALCUIN
variety of trivial puzzles remaining.
lias
we have a
After an ox
plowed
all
day,
how many
steps
is,
does he take in the last furrow?
The answer
first
"none, because the last furrow covers his tracks."
This would serve as well for the
for all furrows.
or for
any or
When
a farmer goes plowing,
and has turned thrice at each end of his field, how many furrows has he drawn? Alcuin says six, but the Venerable Bede said seven, and the Venerable Bede was right, if only the farmer starts in his first furrow on a straight line from one end of the In another propfield and finishes his last furrow. osition Alcuin requests that three hundred pigs be killed in three batches on successive days, an odd number to be killed each day. But as three odd numbers cannot add up an even sum, he has an impregnably insoluble proposition. " Eccefabula I he cries in glee, "here's a go! There is no solution.
This fable
is
only to provoke boys."
in
He
only
adds a scholium at the end to the effect that the
proposition will
work
the same
way
if
thirty pigs are taken.
Let not Alcuin' s treatises be judged apart from
the environment of his times.
intellect
The
age,
whose
he addressed, thought as a child and spake
and to have presented anything else was what it could not understand. It was to invite certain failure in any attempt made in behalf of learning. It was a necessary first stage in the evolution of modern European onlture that some one should at some time teach the rudiments to
as a child, to present
THE EDUCATIONAL WKITINGS OF ALCUIN
113
barbarous western Europe, and that Alcuin did this
and recognized the limitations under which learning would be received, is not so much a proof of mediocrity as of his sagacity. He was not a writer
of genius, nor of originality, nor of vast learning,
but he was a
man
of great practical sense. didactic writings furnish
Nor should his properly
the basis for a judgment as to the educational attain-
ments of their author, except as exhibiting the substance of his formal instruction.
If this is all
we
have, then the best that can be said for his
is
teaching
ancients,
that he gave western Europe imper-
fectly understood fragments of the
wisdom
of the
and is more significant from the fact that he makes plain the intellectual darkness of the time than that he is introducing a learning
that relieves
it.
Happily, there
is
another side
which appears in many of his letters. They give us many a glimpse of his utter unselfishness, his purity and gentleness,
to his educational activity
his fidelity to the spiritual welfare of his pupils,
and his never-ceasing personal anxiety that their lives and minds should be moulded by the spirit of Christ. Here is the true Alcuin, not the reviver of a decayed and fragmentary school learning,
but the inspirer of Christian
studies and conduct, in an age
ideals,
both as to
when both seemed
to be disappearing from the face of Europe.
Alcuin's eye followed his pupils in their later
life
Stretched to
and his hand of support or restraint was outthem again and again. When one of
114
ALCUIN
them,
who was fond of high
living
and the company
of actors, was going to Italy, he cautioned
him soberly
not only as to the care of his health in that climate,
but as to his general conduct.
"My
dearest son,"
he writes, "great
is
my
longing for your health
and prosperity.
you a spoken words of paternal affection, beseeching you to keep God before your eyes and in your remembrance with
I therefore desire to send
letter of exhortation in place of the
mind and virtuous intention. Let Christ be On your lips and in your heart. Act not childishly and follow not boyish whims, but be perfect in all uprightness and continence and moderation, that God may be glorified by your works, and that the father who bore you may not be made Be temperate in food and drink, reashamed. garding rather your own welfare than any carnal delight or the vain praise of men, which profiteth not if your acts be displeasing to God. It is better to please God than to please actors, to look Let after the poor than to go after buffoons. your feastings be decorous, and those who feast with you be religious. Be old in morals, though Another letter written from young in years." Tours in Alcuin's old age to the young princes still
entire devotion of
at the palace,
when
:
Charles, their father,
was away
in Italy, is both tender It
and playful in
its affection.
reads in part
"
To
my
dearest sons in Christ
I
their father wisheth eternal welfare.
would write
you a great deal that would carry
if
only I had a dove or a raven
letter
my
on
its
faithful pinions.
THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF ALCUIN
Nevertheless, I have given this
little
115
sheet to the
winds, that
it
may come
blast.
to
you by some favoring
breeze, unless, perchance, the gentle zephyr change
But arise, south or north away this little parchment to bid you greeting and to announce our prosperity, and our great desire to see you well and whole,
to
an eastern
or any wind! and bear
even as the father desires his sons to be.
Oh,
how
happy was that day when amid our labors we played at the sports of letters! But now all is changed. The old man has been left to beget other sons, and weeps for his former children that are gone." In his little book, On The Virtues and Vices, sent to Count Wido for his moral instruction, he commends to him the reading of the Scriptures in words of quiet serenity and deep spirituality. "In the reading of the Holy Scriptures," he writes, "lies the knowledge of true blessedness, for therein, as in a mirror, man may consider himself, what he is and whither he goes. He who would be always with God ought frequently to pray and frequently
to read, for
when we pray we are speaking with God, and when we read God is speaking to us."
More than one letter of Alcuin's to wayward pupils has come to us. To one of them he writes in the
following
manner:
"A
mourning father sends
greeting to his prodigal son.
Why
hast thou forfash-
gotten thy father
who taught
thee from infancy,
disciplines,
imbued thee with the ioned thy morals, and
precepts of eternal
life,
liberal
fortified
them with the
com-
to join thyself to the
"
116
ALCUIN
harlots, to the feastings of revellers, to the
pany of
that
vanities of the proud?
Art not thou that youth was once a praise in the mouth of all, a delight to their eyes, and a pleasure to their ears? Alas! alas now art thou a reproach in the mouth of all, the curse of their eyes and the detestation of their
!
ears.
What
has so overturned thee but drunken-
ness and luxury?
Who,
gracious boy, thou son
and light of the Church, has persuaded thee to feed the swine and to eat of their husks? Arise, my son, arise, and return to thy father and say not once, but often, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight. Such are a few out of many instances where Alcuin has left on record the secret of his power over the character of his pupils. He had been their master in things scholastic, but he was also
'
their father in things spiritual.
CHAPTER VI
ALCUIN'S CHARACTER
It is not surprising that conflicting judgments have been passed upon the character of Alcuin. He belonged to an age alien to our own both in the substance and manner of its intellectual life. He belonged, moreover, to an age wherein we see, with some confusion of vision, the disappearance of an old chaotic state of things and the emerging
new social tory when the
of a
it
order,
— one of those times in his-
cross-currents run so strongly that
often becomes hard to hold in view the true
Besides this, it must be remembered that in his chief public activity he was a stranger in a strange land, and the characteristics of the raw, unformed Franks in their effect on the manifestation of his own traits among them, and through his behavior among them to us, must be taken into account. Additional elements which require to be appreciated are the AngloSaxon antecedents of Alcuin, his own personal traits so far as separable from his surroundings, the character of the teaching he received at York and of the masters who gave it, the actual sum of the learning of the time and the nature of his acquaintance with it, and the effect of his own
central drift of affairs.
117
118
efforts
ALCUIN
upon
his pupils
and their
successors.
Thus,
because of this complexity of elements and the
additional embarrassment caused
by the imper-
fection of our records, there have been almost as many opinions as writers about Alcuin. " Consid-
ering the period in which he lived, he
may
be
regarded as a universal genius,"^
is
the judgment
Another depicts him of one of his biographers. as " full of faith in the power and the destiny of
man's
all
intellect, "
and in
fact quite a
modern
in his
attitude.''
The Abb6 Laforet
in his sketch exceeds
bounds of moderation in eulogizing Alcuin 's "The erudition of Alcuin," he writes, " from whatever point it be viewed, embraced both On the world of secular and of sacred learning. one side he brings before us the most famous philosophers, historians and poets of Greece and Rome, and on the other exhibits a knowledge of the whole of ecclesiastical history and Christian doctrine."" Another, with more justice, rates him as "the most learned man of his age,"* but leaves the value of this opinion to be further determined by the character of the learning to which Alcuin had access. Less complimentary, as well as disappointing is the judgment which makes him merely " an estimable man, and a good administrator, but of no
learning.
1
2 8
Lorenz, Lift of Alcuin, London, 1837, p. 245. Monnier, Alcuin et Charlemagne, p. 357.
Laforet, Alcuin Restaurateur des
Science*
en Occident
tout Charlemagne, p. 246.
*
Histoire Lit€raire de la France,
VoL IV, p.
344.
ALCUIN'S CHARACTER
original genius,
119
and cast in a monastic mould." ^ From these diverse estimates, whether eulogistic
or depreciatory,
it is
of Alcuin's
scholarly
qualities,
a relief to turn to such a well-balanced judgas that
was rather and action than of genius and contemplation, like Bede, but his power of organization and of teaching was great, and his services to religion and literature in Europe, based indeed on the foundation of Bede, were more widely extended, and in themselves inestimable."* The same contrariety is discoverable in the estimates put on other phases of Alcuin's character. Thus his humility seems to one ostentatious, and His timidity becomes either to another genuine. rank cowardice or wise prudence. His conservaa
ment
which
asserts that " Alcuin
man
of learning
tive distrust of anything outside the
Roman
tradi-
tion
is
interpreted both as a trait which " dwarfs
littleness,"
'
him almost to
and as the saving quality
due in part to the
of all his teaching.*
Underneath these
diversities,
point of view of the writers and in part to an attention bestowed on certain aspects of Alcuin's character to the obscuring of others,
and thus leading to
is
casual error or even serious disproportion, there
1
*
Laurie, Rise and Early Constitution of Universities, p. 47. " Alcuin," by Bishop Stubbs, in the Dictionary of Christian
Biography.
8 *
Mullinger, Schools of Charles the Great, p. 126. Laforet, Alcuin Restaurateur des Sciences en Occident Moun
p. 247,
Charlemagne,
note
2.
120
ALCUm
much
that
is essential.
all,
yet an agreement as to
After
the original and proper personality of
Alcuin, as distinguished from any modified manifestations of his character under stress of circum-
/
which at times obscured his real self, is He was difl&cult to discover and portray. a man of pure and unselfish character, thoroughly penetrated by a deep and gentle piety joined to Inwrought with these strong moral earnestness. fundamental traits was his Anglo-Saxon sobriety and fidelity, to which his training at the school in York added habits of industry in study and vigorous The models which he conself-control in morals. imitate were those characters sciously aspired to which had themselves been moulded on the strict lines of Church orthodoxy. His intellectual ideals were thus limited by ecclesiastical tradition, and hence his supreme aim as a teacher was to master and communicate the existing learning so far as adopted by the Church, without any thought of criticism upon it or adventurous speculation beyond it. Fidelity to received truth and not discovery of new truth was accordingly his one passion as a student. Whatever cramping effect such a conservative attitude would have had on the development of a learning that had once been planted and needed growth,
stances,
not very
this
injurious effect
was not
visible in Alcuin's
introduction of studies into Frankland.
it
Indeed,
was rather a help than a hindrance to the cause of education that only what was generally accepted
95 settled should be taught at the
first.
Alcuin
ALCUIN'S CHARACTER
121
was therefore the man
versatility in everything,
^
for his time.
The
airy
speculations of the bright Irish scholars, "their
with sure knowledge of nothing," as Theodulf contemptuously put it, and their general tendency to question the body of accepted tradition, would have unfitted them to be introducers and inculcators of the rudiments of a school learning upon which any hope of future progress might securely depend. It was also well that Alcuin joined to his considerable learning both unselfishness of purpose and
great tact.
^
Though Charles assigned
life,
rich bene-
fices for his support,
he remained a poor
the end of his
using the means at his
to further the cause of learning.
man to command Though in the
he
line of succession to the archbishopric of York,
was
indifferent to this as to all other ecclesiastical
advancement, content to be a simple deacon or "humble Levite," as he so often styles himself.
His influence was thus more evidently the result own personal qualities than of the accidents of ecclesiastical station, and the example of selfdenial which he set to his scholars proclaimed eloquently enough the excellence of learning over the advantages of wealth and position. "It is easy indeed to point out to you the path of wisdom," was his noble encouragement to them, "if only ye love it for the sake of God, for knowledge,
of his
for purity of heart,
for understanding the truth,
yea,
and for
itself.
Seek
it
not to gain the praise
iMigne,yol.CV,322.
122
ALCUm
of men, or the honors of this world, nor yet for
the deceitful pleasures of riches, for the more these
things are loved so
those
much
^
the farther do they cause
who
seek them to depart from the light of
truth and knowledge."
best teaching,
This
is
the spirit of his
else,
and
in this, if in
nothing
he
is
the finest soul of his age; nor has any age since
his time either outlived or lived
up
to his monition.
We must also credit him with a certain largeness
He of view in spite of his circumscribed horizon. had some notion of the continuity of the intellectual life of man, of the perils that be set the transmission of learning from age to age, and of the disgrace that attached to those who would allow those noble arts to perish which the wisest of men among the ancients had discovered. He saw clearly that it was vitally important for education to pervade
all hopes of learning were then was also valuable as a civilizing agent in the world. Bestowing his instruction in the first instance on those who were to be churchmen, he also taught clerks and laymen alike at York, at Aachen and at Tours, not for hire, not for ostentation of his erudition, but without money and
the Church, wherein
centred, and that
it
without price, for the love of souls.
Perceiving
his care to
that the precious treasure of knowledge was then
hidden in a few books, he made
transmit to future
slips of the
it
ages
copies
undisfigured by
pen or mistakes of the understanding.
Thus, in every
1
way
that lay within his power,
CI, 860.
Orammatica, Migne,
ALCUIN'S CHARACTER
123
he endeavored to put the fortunes of learning for
the times that should succeed
him
in a position of
advantage, safeguarded by an abundance of truthfully transcribed books, interpreted
his
own
training, sheltered within the
civil
by teachers of Church and
becomes
defended by the
power.
services, it
In view of such inestimable
a matter of small concern to seek after his defects.
They
are visible enough, so far as important to
an
understanding of his place in education, in the
limitations
which
define his
let
ideals
and achieve-
ments.
Therefore,
the best he wrought be
taken as reflecting Alcuin at his best, exhibiting,
as in a fine likeness, the expression for
which he
most deserves to be remembered.
CHAPTER
VII
RABANUS MAURUS AND ALCUIN'S OTHER PUPILS
time of Alcuin's death, the chief posts of advantage for promoting the cause of education within the empire of Charles the Great were held
At the
by
his pupils or friends.
Theodulf was bishop of
Orleans, the adviser of Charles in his later years,
and of his successor, Lewis the Pious. His beloved Amo was archbishop of Salzburg, Riculf of Mayence, Rigbod of Treves, and Leidrad of Lyons; while the younger Eanbald, as archbishop of York, might be depended upon to foster sound learning
in Britain.
Adelhard,
the
princely cousin
retired
of
from court Charles the Great, young man enter the abbey of Corbie when a to near Amiens, had become its abbat, and after the death of Alcuin founded the abbey of new Corbie in Saxony in 822, becoming its first abbat and remaining at the head of both monasteries until
his death in 826.
who had
Angilbert ruled the abbey of St.
Riquier.
to Alcuin
Sigulf became abbat of Perrieres, one
of the houses whose
revenues had been assigned on his coming into Frankland. On the death of Sigulf in 821, Aldrich, who had studied at Tours, succeeded him as abbat of Perrieres, and 80 continued until 829, when he became archbishop
124
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
of Sens.
125
He
also taught theology for a while in
the palace school, and was instrumental in reform-
ing the discipline of the abbey of St. Denis.
He
died at Ferrieres in 836.
Alcuin's favorite pupil,
Fridugis, by his desire succeeded
him
as head of
the monastery and school at Tours in 804, continu-
ing there until his death in 834.
at Aniane in Languedoc.
His friend and
correspondent, St. Benedict, ruled the monastery
Others of his pupils
of lesser fame were scattered here and there in
various schools, while the greatest and almost the
latest of his disciples, young Rabanus Maurus, the primus prceceptor Germanioe, was already teaching in the school at Fulda, destined under his presidency to become more famous than Tours itself. "In that part of Germany which the eastern Franks inhabit," writes Rudolph, the contemporary biographer of Rabanus, "there is a place called Fulda from the name of a neighboring river. It is situated in a great forest which in modern times is called Buchonia, or Beechwood, by the The holy martyr Boniinhabitants of those parts. face, who was sent as an ambassador from the apostolic see into Germany and ordained bishop
of the church of Mayence, obtained this woodland,
the goings and comings of men,
was secluded and far removed from from Carloman, king of the Franks, and by authority of Pope Zacharias founded a monastery there in the tenth year before his martyrdom, being the seven hundred
inasmuch as
it
and forty-fourth year
after the birth of our Lord.
126
ALCUIN
" Now the fifth abbat appointed to rule over the
who was
monastery after the blessed Boniface was Rabanus, also my preceptor, a man deeply religious
and well instructed in Holy Scripture, whose whole study was given to meditation in the law of the Lord and to the teaching of truth, and moreover to
exercising the greatest care over monastic discipline
and the advancement of his scholars." Rabanus was born in Mayence in 776. While yet a child he was sent to the abbey school of Fulda to be educated, and at once embraced the monastic life. The school had already attained great reputation. Its foundation had been laid by Boniface, the "apostle of Germany." Sturm, the first abbat, had visited the Italian abbeys in 747, in search of a pattern for his own, and on his return modeled the abbey and its school after Monte
Cassino, the foremost of the Benedictine houses.
Its second abbat
was Baugulf, who ruled from 780
to 802, coincident with almost the whole time of
Alcuin's activity in the palace school and at Tours. Being then one of the leading abbeys, it was directly affected by the educational revival instituted by Charles under Alcuin's guidance, and the copy of the great capitulary of 787 addressed to Baugulf is the only one that has been preserved to modern times. Rabanus pursued his youthful studies under him and his successor Ratgar, whose interest in his brilliant pupil was deep and constant. Ratgar was soon attracted by the fame of Alcuin, and an old manuscript of Fulda records the fact
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
that in the year 802 he
sent
127
"Kabanus along
Kabanus was
with Hatto to Tours unto Master Albinus, for the
sake of learning the liberal arts."
to Ratgar records his gratitude
fective
not unmindful of the kindness, and in some verses
and laments his dememory, but assures Ratgar that whatever his master taught him was all faithfully committed "It is thy goodness," he says, "that to writing.
has enabled
me
to study books, but the poverty of
my own mind stifles me. Wherefore, whatsoever my master taught me by word of mouth I committed entire to the leaves of books, lest my wandering
wits should lose
at Tours,
it."
^
As companions of his studies
as abbat of Fulda,
Kabanus had Hatto, already mentioned,
who
succeeded
him
later archbishop of Halberstadt, and Samuel,
Haymo, who
became abbat of Lorsch. student days under Alcuin.
encyclopedia,
He
never forgot his In the preface of his
Haymo
letters
On the Universe, Kabanus recalls to the days spent at Tours " in the study of
and meditation on the Scriptures, when we
read together not only the sacred books and the
expositions of the holy fathers thereon, but also
those acute inquisitions of the 'prudent of this
world
'
into the nature of things, recorded in their
descriptions of the liberal arts and their other
investigations."*
Alcuin so highly esteemed his
St.
pupil that he bestowed on him, after his custom,
the special surname Maurus, after
1
Maur, the
Poem
to Ratgar
s X>e Univerao, Preface to
{Carm. XIV), Migne, CXII, 1600. Haymo, Migne, CXI, IL
128
ALCUIN
Benedict.
favorite pupil of St.
After a stay of
not more than a year at Tours, Rabanus returned
and was at once put in charge of the abbey school by Ratgar, with Alcuin's full approval, as may be inferred from a short letter^ he wrote to Rabanus in the year 803, invoking a
to Fulda,
blessing
upon him and
his
scholars.
But
his
interest did not cease here,
and a
still later letter
shows that he and Rabanus kept up a close correspondence.*
In this letter Alcuin congratulates Rabanus on Ms becoming devotion to "sacred wisdom" and
1
3
Ep. 251 Jaffe; 187 Migne. Litterarum series tuarum
Isetificavit
ocalos meos.
Ep. 290
Jaffe'.
It is
true this letter of Alcuin
it
is
not directed to Rabanus by
contains indications that it was sent to him. In the salutation, Alcuin greets his " dearly beloved son and pet animal
name, but
(animali)." Rabanus means "a raven" (rabe), and the designation " pet animal " is in keeping with a humorous habit Alcuin
of playing on the names of his pupils in his letters to them. Moreover, the letter is addressed to one who is commended for his excellence in studies, and abounds in exhortations regarding the teaching of youth who are then subject to him. Still more
had
is the fact that the recipient of the letter is said to have been " a fellow-disciple of Samuel," whom Rabanus himself in one of his poems styles the special sodalis of his earlier days. "My beloved brother," he says in his twenty-second poem, " it was once my joy to have thee as my companion among the other students. Remember me now as I remember you, and let your heart retain and your conduct exhibit that which once our master Albinus taught us." (Migne, CXII, 1604.) Duemmler argues from the mention of Samuel, without observ-
conclusive
was sent to Rabanus (Monumenta Alcuiniana, p. 876, note). Froben inclines to the same view (Migne, vol, C, 459, note on " Samuelia ").
ing the other considerations, that the letter
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
his "love of learning."
129
In response to a previous
request that Alcuin should write an account of his
own conduct and
need these. you to ask
habits so that he might imitate
them, his master expresses surprise that he should
"It seems a marvel," he writes, "for
conduct, since
me to describe my were with me day and night,
you
then
nor was anything
that I did ever concealed from you."
He
reminds him that he would do far better to imitate the examples of the holy men whose lives are
recorded in Scripture, and above all exhorts
him
"to seek after Christ as foretold by the prophets
and set forth in the gospel." "And when you find him," he continues, "do not let him go, but bring him into the house of your heart and keep him He also instructs as the master of your life." him to be careful of his office as a teacher, that the gift of intelligence in him may be increased; "for 'unto him that hath shall be given,' that is, to him that hath a desire of teaching shall be added the His pupils are discernment of understanding." exhorted " to learn in their youth, that they may
be able to teach when they are old." Samuel helped Eabanus in his school work, and
there were other assistants.
The
library of the
some ^ Tours. In poem to Gerhoch, from a of its books the librarian, whom Rabanus fancifully styles his " davipotens frater," or "brother with the power of
abbey was greatly enriched, possibly drawing
1
Alcuin, Ep. 290 Jaffe.
Rabanus asked
for
books from
Alcuin.
130
ALCUm
the keys," he describes the extent of the library. "What can I say," he exclaims, " in the high praise
of books, the books which you, dear brother, keep beneath your key? There is to be found "whatsoever the wisdom of the world has published
in its various ages."
—
The exaggerations
of verse
need not cause us to doubt that the library was ample and one of the completest for its time. A
large part of
title
it
could doubtless be reconstructed by
list
out of the
in his
own
works.
by Kabanus The importance he attached to
of writers quoted
it is also another indication that he was following hard after the example Alcuin had set at Tours in using the library as an indispensable aid to the
school.
became
pupils, and some of them Such were Walafrid Strabo, Servatus Lupus, Kudolph, his biographer, and
He had many
famous.
Otfried of Weissenburg. It is probable that the whole number of his scholars largely exceeded Alcuin' s, for there are very few names of men eminent in education during the next age which
may
two
not be traced back to Fulda or
affiliated lesser schools.
its
twenty-
fourth abbat,
Meanwhile Eigil, the passed away, and Kabanus succeeded
then gave over the charge of teach-
him
in 822.
He
ing the liberal arts to others, reserving to himself
His career as abbat was famous. Under his rule the monastery at Fulda rapidly increased its endowments, and the number of its students and affiliated schools. Its fame for learning and sanctity spread through all of Frankthe interpretation of Scripture.
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
131
land as well as Germany, and extended even to Rabanus became the adviser of kings and Italy.
princes,
to with special veneration as being the one
and even of the pope, and was looked up on whom the mantle of Alcuin had fallen. After ruling the abbey for twenty years, he The brethren urgently sought to retired in 842. But as he refused, they elected Hatto recall him. Rabanus then went into retirement in his place. at Petersberg near by, and devoted his attention In 847 he was made to meditation and writing. of and died in the year 856, archbishop Mayence, village on neighboring the banks of the Rhine, in a taken back to Mayence for whence his body was
burial.
He was
much
not only Alcuin's greatest pupil, but a
greater
man than
in a larger mould.
his master. He was made While a conservative son of the
Church, he endeavored to develop rather than to
confine the ecclesiastical tradition in education,
and is entirely lacking in that timorous shrinking from everything outside the traditional limits which so cramped Alcuin's intellectual exercises. The heathen weapon of dialectics, which had been looked on as a dangerous two-edged sword, he grasped
He without hesitation to wield for the truth. recalled grammar from being a barren study of
words and letters and syllables, and connected it again with the study of literature. Instead of treating astronomy as merely a ready-reckoning machine for working out the church calendar, he urged its
132
ALCUm
And so with
to disengage
study as a lofty intellectual exercise.
the other disciplines.
Though unable
himself from most of the prevalent errors of his
time,
he must be credited with improving on Alcuin's treatment of the liberal arts to a very The whole volume of secular marked degree. expanded under his teaching and yet withlearning
out prejudice to the study of Scripture.
He
also
contributed distinctly to the general advance of
thought which ended in bringing in scholasticism.
He
boldly insisted on applying the processes of
reason to systematizing the facts of religion, and
in this occupies a middle position between the
irresponsible speculative spirit of Erigena
uncritical crudeness of tradition.
and the
The whole temper of his mind was more open and courageous than Alcuin's. When he came to deal with natural events, he did not childishly seek to ascribe them to occult causes, but referred them to the order of nature established by the Creator; and so, when a superstitious mob in his time sought to "bring help to the waning moon" by their cries and shouts, with the beating of drums and sounding of horns, he rebuked them, bidding them remember that the regular changes and even the portents in the skies were all the work of a wise Creator who was able to manage the world he had made. There was also in him, as might have been expected, marked generosity and sympathy. He was more than once reproved for being over-liberal to the poor, and in the time of famine exerted
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
himself unsparingly to relieve the distress.
attaphes to his
133
The
only instance of unjust severity to another that
name was
the flogging of the
monk
Gotteschalk by his
order for heretical teaching
touching the doctrine of predestination.
narian,
life.
But, set-
ting this aside, Rabanus, though a strict discipli-
was likewise a humane man through
all his
He was
also prudent, for in the midst of
bloody dissensions and plots that thickened around
the successors of Charles the Great, and the violent internal strife
which rent his own monastery
before he became abbat, he so deported himself as
to preserve the regard of every faction.
Taken
it
as
a whole, the personality of Rabanus charms us by
its
independence and vigor, tempered, as
was, by
humanity, good sense, and a loyal respect for the Church he served.
On
the educational side, however, his activity as
call for notice,
a teacher and a writer chiefly
his
and
both of these are seen to the best advantage in
important educational works, which deserve
separate and somewhat detailed examination.
His works, which have come to us substantially
entire, are indeed voluminous,
least three times greater in extent
being collectively at than those of his
teacher Alcuin, and ominously suggest the
monu-
mental vastness of the scholastic writings yet to come. Most of his writings, perhaps seven-eighths in all, are theological, being devoted chiefly to a series
of elaborate commentaries, expositions, and " narrations " on thirty-three books of the Old and New
131
ALCUIN
lit-
Testament, including a complete explanation,
eral, allegorical,
and mystical, of the Pentateuch and nearly all the historical books of the Old Testament, together with Proverbs, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, as well as the Gospel of Matthew and all In all this he was only the epistles of St. Paul. following after the ideal that was ever before him of acquainting himself and others with the whole plenitude of Scripture. For "in the knowledge of Holy Scripture," as he writes in his book On
the Instruction
of the Clergy, "is the foundation,
the establishment and the perfecting of wisdom."*
Herein
is
contained the wisdom that flows from
the eternal and unchangeable Wisdom, even from the mouth of the Most High himself. It is " first-
born before all other creatures." The unfailing light that burns within the Scriptures "streams forth over all the world as though let out from a lantern." By that light he studied, devoting
his long life to a whole-souled
tempt to
set forth their
and untiring supreme excellency.
at-
But in addition to his theological writings, Rabanus composed several treatises which bear in whole or in part on education. These are the works, On the Instruction of the Clergy, On Reckoning,
An
the
On
Excerpt on the Chrammatical Art of Priscian, Universe (which may equally well be
entitled
On
Everything^, a short Latin- Tudesque
tract On the Origin of Languages. Perhaps to these should be added his short Treatise
Glossary,
and a
1 j)e
Clericorum Institutione,
III,
cap. 2.
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
on
the Soul,
136
which, like Alcuin's on the same subthe Instruction of the Clergy
*
ject, is
based on Augustine.
His work On
written
was
in the year 819 in response to urgent
requests from the monks of Fulda and others that he should compose a compendium of the things most necessary for the clergy to know. It is divided into three books. The first deals with the organization of the Church, its orders of clergy, its vestments and sacraments. The second describes the round of ecclesiastical duties, the feasts and fasts of the year, and parts of the church service, including also some notice of the books of Scripture, the orthodox creed and the various opposing heresies. The third book, as Rabanus states, "teaches how all that is written in the sacred books is to be searched and studied, as well as those things in the arts and studies of the heathen which are useful for an ecclesiastic to inquire into." ^ It is this third book which has educational interest, for, although primarily intended as a manual
for the education of clergy, it contains
relates to secular learning.
much
that
the
The book opens with proposition that any one who would fulfil the
sacred clerical duties ought to be a
man
of "pleni-
tude of knowledge, rectitude of
of erudition."
fully
life
by
saying, "
Rabanus goes on to Such an one should not be allowed
and perfection define this more
1 De Clericorum Institutione in Migne's Patrologia Latina, CVII, 29^-419. a De Clericorum Institutione, Frsefatio.
186
ALCUm
any of those things wherein
is,
to be ignorant of
it
will be his duty to instruct both himself and those
who
are subject to him, that
of the
tures, of the clear truth of history, of the
Holy Scripmodes of
of
figurative speech, of the signification of mystical
things,
of the utility of all the disciplines,
life
and probity of morals, of elegance in the delivery of discourses, of wisdom in the setting forth of doctrines and of the different
uprightness of
remedies suited to the variety of spiritual diseases."^
His educated man
is,
therefore, to be
conversant with Scripture, with history, with an
understanding of
the figures of speech and the
and of all the useful knowledge in the different liberal disciplines. Besides this, he is to be a man of probity in life and especially accomplished in rhetoric and dialectics.
mystical sense of things,
" One
who
does not
know
these things
is
not only
unable to be useful to others, but even to himself.
Therefore
it is
needful that the future ruler of a
people, while he has leisure,
should prepare in
advance the weapons whereby he
may
bravely
conquer the enemy and defend the flock committed For it is a base thing that one who has to him. been appointed a pastor of souls should only begin to desire to learn at the time when he ought to be
ready to teach, and
it is
a perilous thing for any
if
one to take up the burden of a ruler
•
he cannot
ably support that burden by the strength of his
own wisdom."
^
And
then comes one of those
I, !»
De CUricorum Inttitutione,
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
golden sentences wherein
best.
137
we hear Kabanus at his "Let no one dare to teach any art, unless he has first learned it by prolonged study."* The imperative tone was needed, for he was waging relentless war against the promotion of ignorant clergy to posts of honor. "There are some," he says, " who within the Church itself seek promotion
solely from ambition.
is
As
the Scripture attests,
it
they
who
covet the
first
salutations in the market-
place, the chief places at feasts,
and the chief
seats
in
the synagogues.
.
.
.
They
are the ignorant
shepherds
saying,
stand.'
who
are reproved by the prophet Isaiah,
'These are shepherds that cannot under-
By
reason of their ignorance, those
who
follow
them stumble, and hence
fall into
in the gospel
Christ the Truth saith, 'If the blind lead the blind,
tiey shall both
scriptural
the ditch.'"
illustration
By
such
exhortation and
Eabanus
develops the opening chapter of the third book,
and prepares the way for setting forth the education needed for the elevation of the clergy.
He then proceeds
that knowledge of
in the second chapter to explain
is both the beginning and the completion of wisdom, because Scrip-
Holy Scripture
ture
is
the highest utterance of
God
himself, the
eternal
Whatever truth there may be elsewhere, whether in the Church or out of it, has its source, it is true, in the same eternal Wisdom from which the Scriptures come. But as Scripture
Wisdom.
1
Nulla ars doceri prsesumator,
I,
nisi prios intenta
meditatione
discator.
L
188
is
ALCUm
the transcendent and highest utterance of the
is
it
Divine Wisdom, so
superior to the
wisdom
found in the Church or in the world outside. Yet as " Whatall truth has one source he goes on to say ever truth there may be anywhere is to be known as truth by bringing it to a test of truth, and whatever good there is anywhere is discovered to be
:
good by a standard of goodness. Nor are the true and wise things which are to be found in the books of the 'prudent of this world to be attributed to any other source than truth and wisdom itself, because these truths were not constructed originally by those in whose writings they are found, but were truths existing from eternity which they merely discovered. For Truth and Wisdom, the teacher and enlightener of all, granted them the power to search them out. Therefore, all the useful knowledge that lies in the books of the heathen, and the salutary truths of Scripture as well, are to be used for one purpose and referred to one end, that is, the perfect knowledge of truth and the highest excellence of wisdom." This is Augustine revived in his most generous mood, speaking by the The cramping and shrinking voice of Kabanus. of Alcuin's spirit is no longer here, and in such a passage as this Rabanus when compared with him seems a giant. The book then goes on to explain the spirit and method of studying the Scriptures, closely following the treatise of Augustine On
'
Christian Doctrine.^
I
De
Clericoirum Institutione,
m,
cap. 15, at the end.
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
139
Beginning at the sixteenth chapter, eleven successive chapters are devoted to secular learning, a separate one being assigned to each of the seven liberal
arts.
Kabanus
first
distinguishes between the fun-
damentally true things of ancient secular learning and the false inventions which were attached to it.
Such were
all
magic
arts,
the worship of idols, the
taking of omens, astrological calculations, and the
other varieties of "pernicious superstition."
On
the other hand the body of
which life here below, is by no is so needful for our means to be despised by a Christian. Nay, he insists, it should be "studied and held firmly in mind," and whoso does this will understand, the more he studies, that the whole of truth taken as one redounds to the "honor and love of one God."* His following account of the liberal arts separately
learning,
is
human
of distinct interest.
Grammar he
defines as
"the science of interpreting the poets and historians,
ing.
and the
art of correct writing
and speak-
It is the
foundation of the liberal arts."
Alcuin had confined grammar to the explanation Eabanus of how to write and speak correctly.
adds to this narrow formal side the literary side, which was included in the broader definition of the
it from had been reduced by the However, he extols the treatment of Alcuin. Christian against the classical poets, and cites
Roman
grammarians, and thereby rescues
it
the barrenness to which
1
Ad
tinius
Dei laudem atque dilectionem concta convertere.
m, cap. 17.
J40
ALCUIN
Sedulius,
Juvencus,
books."
Arator,
Alcimus,
Clement,
Paulinus, and Fortunatus^ as "writers of famous
He
allows with restriction the reading of
classical poets,
mainly for the sake of their " flowers
" And so
of eloquence."
poets,
when we read
the heathen
and the books of secular wisdom come into our hands," he writes by way of general conclusion, "let us turn to our own instruction whatever we find useful in them; but if there be anything
superfluous concerning idols or love or the care of
secular things," all such passages are to be passed
by or expunged. The chapter on
rhetoric contains little of special
note, but the next one
on
dialectics is important.
"Dialectics," according to his definition, "is the
rational discipline concerned with definitions
and
explanations, and able even to separate truth from
Such an utterance is in marked conwith Alcuin, who would never have countenanced so bold and sweeping an assertion of the
falsehood."
trast
sufficiency of dialectics as a means of discerning between truth and error; but Rabanus waxes very bold and asserts further that "this is accordingly
the discipline of disciplines.
teach and
herself,
how
to learn.
It teaches us how to In this Reason reveals
and shows clearly what she is, what she means and what she perceives. This discipline alone knows how to know, and is both willing For when we and able to make others know.
1 It is
interesting to notice that all these i>oet8 are in Alcmn's
list
of the books at York.
See pages 34 and 35.
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
reason with
it,
141
we
learn
what we
are
and whence
we
are.
We
understand the difference between a
good-doer and a good deed, between a creator and
a creature.
error.
We
investigate truth;
we
fasten on
By this we reason and
follows and
sistent,
what what does not follow; what is inconwhat is true, and what is probable, as well
discern between
as
what is thoroughly false." While Eabanus cannot be credited, as some have
supposed, with an important advance on Boethius
and with consciously opening up the dialectical activity of the early Middle Ages, it is yet true that his enthusiastic commendation of dialectics was
influential in preparing the
way
for the reign of
Of course such a weapon as Kabanus defined dialectics to be, must have eminent value
logic later. ^
for the Church.
Wherefore," he says, "the clergy ought to know this most noble art and to have its
laws constantly before them in meditation, that
"
they
ions
may be able
to penetrate
with subtlety into the
craftiness of the heretics,
and confute their opin-
by the magical conclusions of syllogisms." His speculative contemporary, Scotus Erigena, could have asked little more. Yet Rabanus guards himself by distinguishing between what he calls sophisms and truths. "There are true modes," he
says, " of connecting not only true
but even false
1 So aiisserte die Schule welche Hrabanus bekanntlich in Fulda eingerichtet liatte auch auf den Betrieb der Logik
. . .
einen hochst giinstigen Einfluss.
— Prantl, Geschichte der Logik^
U,40.
142
ALCUIN
Now, these true modes
of connection
opinions.
may be
learned in the schools which are outside
is
the Church, but the truth of opinions
to be stud-
ied in the holy books of the Church."
The forms
of logic
may be
learned outside, but the substance
of truth necessary for arriving at a sound conclusion can be learned only in books of the Church.
where his use of dialectics from that of Erigena. Eabanus would never have approved using Plato and Martianus Capella
here, after all, is
differs
And
for substance of doctrine equal in value with Scripture, as
Erigena did.
And he was consistent,
for after
once asserting that the Scriptures are the highest
form of truth and that other truths are to be
inter-
preted in their light, the material for his reasoning
was unchangeably defined and estimated
tics,
in advance.
After thus treating grammar, rhetoric, and dialec-
he proceeds to describe the four remaining arts, which he includes, following a common custom, under the general name of mathematics. The first
of the four
is
arithmetic, " the study of numerical
It is, as he shows, the fundamental "mathematical discipline," without knowledge of which neither music, nor geometry, nor astronomy can be pursued. A Christian is not to
quantity," pure and simple.
despise this secular study, for does not Josephus,
that most learned Jew, relate
first to
how Abraham was
the
deliver both the arithmetical and astronomi-
cal art to the
Egyptians?
The seed
of this knowl-
edge, which the father of the faithful sowed
among
them, they cultivated and also developed therefrom
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
143
the other disciplines. Then, too, the Church fathers
strongly
commend
the study of arithmetic, inas-
mind from carnal desires by leading it to abstract meditation. Scripture, God too, commends the study in many places. himself made the world "by measure and weight and number," as we read in the Book of Wisdom. Nay, more " the very hairs of our head are num-
much
as it abstracts the
:
bered," as the gospel explicitly asserts.
Then
there are the writings of Plato, "of great authority,"
though
less
than Scripture, which represent
to us the Creator building the universe according
to numerical harmonies
and proportions.
Another
consideration
is
to be found in the mystical signifi-
cance of particular numbers mentioned in Scripture.
"Thus," says Eabanus, "six is a perfect number, for did not God make the world in six days?" And yet he audaciously observes: "We
are not to say that the
number six is perfect because work of creation in six days, but that he accomplished the work in six days
God accomplished
because six
is
his
a perfect number.
Nay, even
if
his
work had not been finished in six days, yet would the number still be a perfect one." Now, the Bible
book to many because of their "Wherefore," he writes, "it is needful, if any one would arrive at the knowledge of Holy Scripture, that he should study this art intently, so that when he has learned it he may the easier understand the mystical numbers in the sacred books." Alcuin would have commended
is
really a sealed
ignorance of arithmetic.
144
ALCUIN
heartily this exposition of arithmetic in general.
Yet in two respects
Plato
is
it
departs from Alcuin, foi
quoted as "of great authority," though
with some reserve, and a " perfect number " is represented as something regulative of the activity
of
God
himself.
Thus already
in the barren field
of arithmetic, as well as in dialectics, the shoots of
speculation were beginning to spring up.
The account of geometry indicates that Rabanus had been reading one of Erigena's favorite books, the Latin translation by Chalcidius of the TimcBus
of Plato.
"The
philosophers," he says, "testify
in their writings that Jupiter geometrizes."
He
per-
prudently remarks that, "
if
this saying be applied
it
wisely to God, the omnipotent Creator,
;
may
haps be congruent with truth for geometry, if we may be allowed to say so, has a holy divinity of its
it imposes its various forms and models on creation, and maintains it in existence up
own, inasmuch as
to the present day."
The courses
of the stars
and
the "fixed linear"
(statutis lineis) constitution of
bodies in motion or at rest are cited as examples of
the sancta divinitas of geometry.
art is referred to the Egyptians,
Its origin as an and Varro, "the
most learned of the Latins," is cited to prove that geometry began with mensuration. A consideration which makes it acceptable to a Christian is, that it was used in building the tabernacle and the temple, in constructing which there was evident need "of the measurement of the line, the circle, the sphere, the hemisphere, and also of the
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
quadrangle."
discernment."
Lastly,
is
146
"an acquaintance with
all
geometrical figures
of help towards spiritual
Music is defined as " the discipline which treats of the numbers which pertain to it, that is, of those which occur in sounds." "One sound," for example, " is the double,
the treble, or the quadruple of
so useful that without
it
another."
Music
is
the
church service cannot be fully performed, inasmuch as not only pleasant modulation in singing but
proper pronunciation in reading call for musical
skill.
It is also noble as well as useful. " the heaven and the earth and all that are in
For them
are ruled
by harmony, Pythagoras
is
is
testifying that
the world was created according to the harmonies
of music, and
oras,
governed by the same."
not the only authority.
Pythag-
however,
is
The
art
of music
blended with the Christian religion,
and ignorance of music is an impediment to faith. Ko heed is to be paid to the heathen superstitions which make the Muses daughters of Jove. The
learned Varro, a heathen himself, has refuted this
notion,
showing that Jove was not the father of the But whether Varro's opinion be true or not makes little difference, "for we ought not to avoid music, the art of the Muses, because of proMuses.
fane superstitions, so long as
it is
possible to extract
from
it
useful
help
for
understanding
Holy
Scripture."
The
folly of such a course
would be
as great as a refusal to learn letters because the
heathen said Mercury was the god of
letters, or to
146
ALCUIN
refuse to practice justice and virtue because they dedicated temples to Justice and Virtue. " On the
contrary," says Rabanus, echoing Augustine, "let
every good and true Christian
know
that all truth,
wherever he finds
is
it,
belongs to his Lord."
The exposition of astronomy, which next follows, lighted up with an enthusiasm almost as great His openas appears in the account of dialectics. ing statement is impressive. "If we pursue this
study with chastened and moderate
as the ancients say,
fill
spirit, it will,
our thoughts with deep and
all their
reverent love.
How great a thing it is to approach in
spirit to the heavens,
— to explore
supernal
mechanism by rational
intellectual
and by lofty insight to observe anywhere and everyinvestigation,
!
where the veiled secrets of their vast greatness " How feeble and poverty-stricken, in the light of
such a conception as
of astronomy a
this, is the
interminable astro-
nomical correspondence of Alcuin, which makes
the church feasts
cumbrous machine for calculating Not that Rabanus refuses the
!
determination of the church calendar a place in
astronomy.
it is
On
the contrary, he expressly includes
is
therein.
But astronomy
far
more
to him.
It
the study of the " law of the stars, which
know
as
not either
how
to
move or stop other wise than
the Creator has ordained."
have now passed in review. "are the seven liberal arts of the philosophers." The "seven liberal arts"! It
The seven
arts
"Here," he
says,
is
apparently the
first
instance in history of the
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
use of the term.
147
Christianity has at last sucin
ceeded after
ales.
centuries
converting
the artes
liber-
liberales of the ancients into
the septem artes
The change
of feeling
from antagonism to
toleration,
and then into friendly regard, slowly outworking in Western Christendom from the time of Augustine and Cassiodorus onward, ends with
the adoption of the liberal arts and the concurrent
prefixing of a Christian
closing his account
name
to them.
So in
in
Rabanus commends them
general as "useful for all Christians."
He
goes
even farther, and adds that "anything the philosophers have written that is true and agreeable to
faith,
was not always quite ready
for our
especially the Platonic philosophers" (he to say Plato) " is not to
be viewed with alarm, but to be taken from them
own
use."
By way
of further enforcement,
he repeats what Augustine had said about taking the gold and the silver of the Egyptians and avoidAs a final ing their superstitions* and idolatry. and supreme caution, he reminds those who have been instructed in the liberal arts to approach the higher study of the Scriptures ever remembering the apostolic watchword, Scientia inflat, charitas mdijkat " (" knowledge puffeth up, but love buildethup"). The rest of the work is devoted to miscellaneous instruction on the art of speaking wisely and eloHis quently, with special reference to preaching. remarks in the thirtieth chapter on the need of using language easily comprehended when speaking
148
AliCUIN
to the people " miglit well have been inscribed in
on every pulpit from his own to the They might equally well be inscribed on every teacher's desk. " Although a good teacher," he says, "ought to be so careful in his teaching that he will not consider an obscure or ambiguous word to be good Latin, still, while avoiding ambiguities and obscurities, let him speak after the fashion of the people, and not as the educated but as the uneducated speak. For of what value is that excellence of expression which the intellect of the hearer does not follow and which they do not underletters of gold
present day."
*
stand to
whom we may understand?
are speaking in order that they
Therefore, let
him who
teaches
avoid all words that do not teach. ^
if he can find other excellent words which will be understood, let him choose such; but if he cannot, either because there are no such words or because they do not occur to him at the time, let him use words that are less excellent, provided only the thing itself be taught and learned excellently." His reasons are no less sensible than his injunctions. "We must insist on being understood,"' he says, " not only when we converse with one or a few persons, but much more when we speak in public, for in conversation every one has an opportunity to question us, but where all sit in silence listening
So then,
1
3
Mullinger, Schools of Charles the Great, p. 145. Qui ergo docet, vitabit verba omnia quae non docent.
m,
cap. 30.
'
Ut
intelligamur instandum
est.
Ill,
cap. 30.
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
to one speaker,
it
149
is
neither right nor decent to
hold any auditor responsible for what he has not
For this reason he who speaks ought make it his care to help him who silently listens. Now, an audience that is anxious to learn is apt to show by its own behavior whether
understood.
to
or not. Until it does it really understands understand we should keep presenting the point Those who teach only at issue in various ways.
what they have prepared and committed word by word to memory have not the power to accomplish this. Then when it is clear that the point is understood, continue the discourse and pass to the other points, for as he who makes clear what we wish to know is an acceptable teacher, so he becomes burdensome when inculcating what we already know."^
There is a statement in Trithemius,' a late biographer of Kabanus, that he wrote while a youth PrcBparamenta, or hand-books of the seven liberal arts "in many volumes." In the writings which have
come
to us, however, there are only two treatises on separate arts, and it is not certain that they are part of the Prceparamenta mentioned by Trithemius. However, as treatises on two of the arts, they may be noticed here. One is entitled An Excerpt on the Grammatical Art of Priscian. It consists of extracts from the grammar of Priscian copied bodily with1
Sicnt enim gratns est qui agnoscenda enubilat, sic onerosus,
Ill,
qui cognita inculcat.
3
cap. 30.
103.
Migne, Patrologia Latina, CVII,
.
150
ALCUm
out indication of any authorship on the part of
Rabanus, apart from a short poem added at the end. The other treatise is entitled On Reckoning
(Computus), and consists of ninety-six short chapters.
It is the
in the year 820.
work of Eabanus, and was written Like some of Alcuin's writings,
it is cast in the form of a dialogue between a master and his pupil. Augustine, Boethius, and
it, but Bede is the author most used in its preparation. The first eight chapters deal with the importance of numbers, the definition of the term " number " itself, the different
Isidore are quoted in
kinds of numbers, treated grammatically rather than
mathematically,
" denuntiative."
onings,
nal, ordinal, adverbial, distributive, multiple,
— numbers being defined as cardiand
is
Then follow the two different reckand on the
fingers.
by
letters
Notation
given both according to the Greek and the
Roman
numeral
scribed
tory.
is
letters
while the finger-reckoning de-
one of the curiosities in educational hisThe method of counting with the fingers is
explained as follows:
finger (medicus),
On
the left hand there are
finger (impudicus)
three fingers, the little finger {auricularis),the fourth
and the third
Accordingly the digits from one to nine can be
counted by beginning with bending the
little finger
toward the palm, and so proceeding to make other number-gestures in sequence with the three fingers.
Besides the three fingers mentioned, there are the
index
fins^er
and the thumb, and by various
flex-
ions of these the tens are indicated from ten to
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
151
ninety, so that with the left hand alone every number short of one hundred could be counted. Then there is the right hand, where the counting begins with the thumb and the index finger, and
then proceeds to the three other fingers,
hand.
— just the
reverse of the method used in counting on the left
The right-hand thumb and finger are used by various flexions to indicate the hundreds from one hundred to nine hundred, and the three other fingers on the right hand are used similarly to indicate the thousands from one thousand to nine thousand. Thus, if the two hands be spread out, palms down, units will be reckoned from the left on the little finger, the fourth finger, and the third finger of the left hand tens will be reckoned on the index finger and thumb of the left hand; hundreds on the thumb and index finger of the right hand; thousands on the other three fingers of the Accordingly, the two hands taken right hand. together could be used to count up to any number short of ten thousand. This notation by finger flexion was extended still further by placing the left hand in various ways on different parts of the body, and so counting by tens of thousands, from ten thousand to ninety thousand; and in the same way the right hand when placed opposite corresponding parts of the body enabled counting to be done by the hundred-thousand, from one hundred thousand up to nine hundred thousand. An example or two of this barbarous method may be given. "When you say one," observes the master to his
;
152
ALCUIN
"bend the little and place
finger
it
pupil,
on the
left
hand
slightly inward
in the palm."
"When
you say ten, put the tip of the index finger against the middle of the thumb." Of course, eleven would be counted by doing both of these at once or in In the same way a hundred is indisuccession. cated on the right hand by putting the tip of the index finger against the middle of the thumb, just A thousand as ten was counted on the left hand. is indicated with the little finger of the right hand as one was indicated with the little finger of the left Any number short of ten thousand could hand. therefore be counted by the two hands without reference to the other parts of the body. For numbers from ten thousand upwards, a different method is used, as mentioned above. Ten thousand is indicated by placing the left hand flat on the breast, but with the fingers pointing upwards and twenty thousand, with the same hand spread out flat across the chest; sixty thousand, with the same hand flat against the
;
The hundred-thousands are indicated manner with the right hand. Consequently, by a series of gestures any number short The two hands of a million may be indicated.
left thigh.
in a similar
clasped together in front, with the fingers inter-
twined, highest
is
the gesture for a million, which
of this digital reckoning.
is
the
That such a system of gesture-numbers should have been deemed worthy of record and explanation by Rabanus for the benefit of the monks at Fulda is sad evidence of the crass ignorance that was
number
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
prevalent.
153
Counting on the
fingers, the
mode of
reckoning in vogue among the lowest savages,
awkward, cumbrous, devoid of any but the rudest intellectual quality, has often been characteristic of tribes which were never able to emerge from their barbarism. Whenever, therefore, we are tempted to look with contempt at the childishness of the best men of the early Middle Ages in their attempts to humanize and christianize the Saxon or the Frank, let the character of the material on which they were working be duly considered, and then their childishness is seen to be wisdom, because they essayed to do only what could be done in the circumstances. Or, as Rabanus might have put it himself, " They taught in the words that teach, not in those which do not teach." The rest of his book on reckoning deals with the Roman divisions of weights, namely, the pound
{libra), containing twelve ounces (uncice), each ounce containing twenty-four scruples (scripult), and each scruple in turn containing six siliquoe. He remarks that these names for weights may be
applied not only to the varieties of money, but to divisions of time as well. He is in need of something to serve the purpose of fractions, and yet, like
Alcuin, has no notion of what a fraction
ions of weights and measures are
is.
It is
interesting. to notice, however, that the sub-divis-
made on the
scale
of six or twelve, that
is,
are duodecimal, whereas
the notation he described for integers was decimal.
The
divisions of time
which occupy several chap*
154
ALCUm
odd enough.
ters are
is
The smallest element of time
There are said to be three hundred seventy-six atoms in one "ostentum," which corresponds with our minute. The ostentum in turn is the sixtieth part of the hour, and one and one-half hours are called a "moment." The word "minute" occurs in Rabanus, but it means the tenth part of an hour, and the "point" is a quarter of an hour. Furthermore, "the hour is the twelfth part of a day," he continues, "for our Lord asserts this, saying, 'Are there not twelve hours in the day? " The rest of the book is
'
called the "atom."
devoted to the parts of the year, the calendar in
general,
the phenomena of the sun,
moon and
method of calculating Easter, including a singular method of calculating the lunar epact on the joints of the hand and closing remarks on the ages of the world's history. The Computiis contains no examples in arithmetic, so that it is impossible to compare it intelligently with Alcuin's
planets, with the
arithmetical propositions.
It is to be regarded not
as a formal treatise on arithmetic, but as a hand-
book of reckoning, including numbers, weights, and measures, the divisions of time, and so much astronomy as related to the general appearance of the sky, and the calculation of the church calendar. In connection with his writings on the liberal
arts it will be appropriate to notice
the LatinIt professes
Tudesque Glossary attributed to him.
to be written
down by
his pupil, Walafrid Strabo,
presumably from dictation.
It contains less than
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
166
two hundred Latin words, some of which are defined in Latin and others are given with their Tudesque equivalents. They are the names of the parts of the human body, and at the end are added the names of the months and the winds, in both languages. It is interesting as showing the incipient recognition of the vulgar languages on the part of the learned, and more especially the interest felt by Rabanus in the early German tongue. Even in Alcuin's time Latin was being pronounced in a barbarized fashion, which pointed to its coming Rabanus had exhorted those who were to fate.
preach to speak so that the people could under-
and not to insist on learned propriety of In this glossary he goes a step farther, and compiles a short list of words in frequent use in Latin with their vulgar Tudesque equivalents. Many of them have the lineaments Thus the Latin os (mouth) of modern German. is the Tudesque mund; the Latin jecur (liver) is For the Latin pes (foot) we have an lebera. approximation to the German /wss in the Tudesque
stand,
expression.
phuoz.^
with a short tract On the of it is taken from Jerome. It contains, with comments, a Hebrew, a Greek and a Latin alphabet, with the sound of each
Rabanus
is
also credited
Origin of Languages.^
Some
letter indicated in
Roman letters. Omega in Greek,
"o longa."
for example, is called
1
Then comes a
1580.
Migne, CXII, 1575.
> J)e Jnventione
Linguarum, Migne, CXII,
166
ALCUIN
is
supposed Scythian alphabet, which
briefly de-
scribed and attributed to Jerome. Rabanus does not
seem
to
be very sure that he understands
:
it,
for
he
says naively to his readers
" If
we have committed
any mistakes in this alphabet or any faults in the others, do you correct them." Then comes the alphabet used by the Marcomanni, " whom we call the Northmen, and from whom the tribes who speak the Tudesque language are descended." Following this are abbreviations for Roman proper names and
the so-called Notod Coesaris, or
that
in
is,
"Marks
all are
of Caesar,"
combinations of dots used instead of vowels
inscriptions.
Roman
Last of
some mono-
grams of Scriptural names.
lology, there
it.
As an
essay in phi-
is,
of course, nothing to be said about
At
best, it
may
pass for a hand-book of alpha-
bets,
useful for scribes, though probably not for
general instruction in schools.
Passing by his treatise
On
the Soul,^
which has
only indirect educational bearings, there remains
for consideration his encyclopedia of all knowledge,
entitled
On
the Universe.^
It
was written about the
year 844, after he had retired from the abbey of Fulda and gone into retreat at Petersberg. For the
composition of such a work he naturally resorted
to the
huge Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, who had given the Middle Ages its first encyclopedia in twenty elaborate books. Following the example of Isidore, who had plundered the classical writers
1
*
De Anima, Migne, CX, 1109. De Universo, Migne, CXI, 9-614.
EABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
to construct his
167
book very much as Eomans in the Middle Ages plundered the Coliseum to build their houses, Kabanus in turn takes most of his book from
Isidore,
omitting the account of the liberal arts
he had written of elsewhere, expanding Isidore's statements in places, borrowing also from Bede in his chapter on chronology, from Lactantius for
the account of the Sibyls, and from Jerome for the
geography of Palestine and the explanation of Hebrew names. But, instead of elaborating his
work in twenty books, as did Isidore, Eabanus had enough matter for twenty-two. Now, although twenty-two was not a sacred number, he was still fortunate enough to chance on the fact that Jerome had divided the whole of the Old Testament into twenty -two books, thus furnishing him with a venerable, if not a sacred precedent.
It is a dreary
enough task to read continuously such a work, but, without some understanding of both the scope and
diversity of its contents,
it is difficult
to appreciate
what was the sum of knowledge of that time, or the attitude of mind which an educator had to
encounter.
An
exhibition of
its
contents
is
a
decided help towards appreciating the confused
medley of general information, at best taken at second or third hand, which was then accepted unquestioningly as the body of settled truth. It is also a help in the same way towards appreciating the untrained and credulous condition of mind which characterized not alone the uneducated but Against such a backgroxind of even the clergy.
!
158
ALCUIN
general misinformation
slightest light shine!
how
brightly does even the
is
and how real
the contrast
between Rabanus, foolish as much of his writing was, and the age he was attempting to educate The But let us examine his encyclopedia. twenty -two books fall into two parts, the first five dealing with sacred and the other seventeen with In spite of the apparent consecular knowledge. fusion, there is a thread of logical continuity which
holds the work together.
Thus the order
is
;
of sub-
jects in the first five books
as follows:
God,
then his creatures, celestial and terrestrial that is The account of the men to say, angels and men.
is
confined to the Bible.
Accordingly,
first
comes
Adam, with the other antediluvians
following,
then the patriarchs with other notable Old Testa-
ment men and women, and then the prophets, followed by New Testament persons and the marNext comes an account of the Church, with tyrs. chapters on the Church and the synagogue, religion
monks, and other orders and schism, definitions the true faith and church doctrine, and relating to of the Scriptures, embracing account some notice of the authorship of each book, with a summary of
and
faith, the clergy, the
of the faithful,
heresy
tiie
contents.
Then, by an odd but not unnatural
libraries,
digression,
we have a chapter on
and
be
"The
Diversity of Literary Works."
This "diver-
sity" relates to kinds of treatises that
sion into chapters and verses,
may
written, the various parts of a discourse, the divi-
and the material
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
make-up
patristic
159
of books.
Then
follows
a chapter on
list
the "canons of the Gospels," being a
of ten
harmonies of the Gospels, followed by other chapters on the decrees of the church councils,
the Easter cycle, the canonical divisions of
the
day
and
the
appropriate
duties
attached
thereto, with closing chapters
on
sacrifices, sacra-
ments, exorcisms, creeds, prayer and fasting, confession
and penance.
books
close,
With
this account of God,
his creatures, his Church,
first
and the Scriptures, the
five
the exposition of secular
knowledge beginning with the sixth book. The sixth book is on "Man and his Parts," that " is to say, on human nature, and the various " parts or functions of the soul and body, explained literally, mystically and allegorically, all with proper Scripture proof -texts. It includes also an explanation of the various postures and
movements
of the
body.
Standing
is
thus symbolical of belief, for
the Apostle says, " Stand fast in the faith."
closing chapter of the book
of the
is
The
devoted to the parts
human body which
in Scripture are said to
be parts of the devil's body.
eyes, nostrils, tongue,
tail,
Among them
are the
mouth, bones, and even a inasmuch as "he swingeth his tail like a
is
cedar."
The seventh book
degrees
a sort of sequel to the sixth,
dealing with the periods of
of relationship
human
life,
the various
by marriage, with two
chapters on monstrosities, such as the fauns, the
satyrs, the giants, the
dog-headed men, Cerberus
160
ALCUIN
and the Chimaera, and on "herds and beasts of
burden," that
is,
the domestic animals.
is zoological.
The eighth book
lions,
It first gives
an
account of wild beasts in general, starting out with
panthers,
pards,
leopards,
all
tigers,
wolves,
foxes, dogs, apes, "
and
other animals that prey
either with teeth or claws,
excepting serpents."
Every beast in the list has its natural description, The and a special mystical meaning as well. spotted pard, to take one example from many, is
rich in significance.
devil,
It "mystically signifies the
who
is full
of manifold wickedness."
Again
it typifies
" the sinner covered with the spots of sin
and of divers errors. Hence the prophet says, The pard cannot change his spots. " It is also
' '
connected with the millennium,
shall lie
"when
'the
pard
down with the
kid. ' "
And
it
stands for
Antichrist, the beast in the Apocalypse, "which ascended from the sea, like unto a pard. " After
the wild beasts the "minute animals"
scribed.
are de-
Such are
crickets,
frogs,
ants,
mice,
The mole, condemned to perpetual blindness and darkness, is an emblem
moles and hedgehogs.
of idolatry. Among the ants enumerated is a kind said to be in Ethiopia, in shape like a dog. This dog-ant "digs up golden sands with its feet and keeps guard over them, lest any one steal the sand." Frogs are briefly described, and then spiritually stigmatized as " demons " and " heretics which cease not their vain and garrulous croaking." Separate chapters follow on serpents, worms^ fishes
EABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
and
birds.
161
Then comes a description of the " miSome of these "birds" are flies. nute birds."
Others are bees, wasps, locusts and ants, each of them having a mystical significance. The bee signifies wisdom, and the locust has various meanings. The fly and the mouse are said to have come originally from Greece.
Flies, moreover, "after they
have been killed in water, will revive within the
space of an hour."
The ninth book
eral,
its
is
devoted to the world in gen-
elements, the various planets, stars, and
constellations,
phere.
and the phenomena of the atmosare fully defined, and the four elements out of which everything has been made.
Atoms
Then
and the two by the
follows a general description of the heavens " doors " of heaven, namely, the east,
the west, because the sun enters by one and leaves
other. Then there are the two cardines, or " turning-points, " north and south. After a chapter
on light and another on
eral,
celestial luminaries in genstars,
there
is
a description of the sun, moon,
and some of the constellations, with one on the morning and another on the evening star. The rest of the book deals with the air, clouds, thunder and lightning, and other "coruscations," the rainbow, fire, frost, coals, ashes, wind, breezes and calm weather, whirlwinds and tempests. The book as a whole is thus astronomical in its first part and in the last part is meteorological. The tenth book is on chronology, or " divisions of time." The eleventh
book, entitled
"On
the Diversity of Waters,"
is
162
ALCUIN
Waters are classified in part and sulphurous, and the
aquatic throughout.
as salt, fresh, bituminous
curative or magical virtues of the
many
springs
and streams are expatiated upon.
ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the
Then comes a
description of various bodies of water, such as the
Red
Sea, the
"abyss," bays and
rents
straits,
lakes and pools, tor-
and whirlpools, with chapters on rain and
(stilla,
;
the two kinds of raindrops
the falling drop,
and
gutta, the fallen drop)
ice,
the book closing with
frost,
explanations of snow,
hail,
dew, mist
are
and deluges.
There
The twelfth and thirteenth books
occupied with a general geography of the earth.
is a chapter on paradise, and another on the " regions of the earth, " which contains detailed topo-
graphical, historical
and other descriptive mention
to
of the various tribes and countries of the earth.
Rabanus then proceeds
islands,
define
and describe
hills,
promontories,
forests.
mountains,
closes the
valleys,
plains
and
He
book with an
account of " various places " of geographical charFirst come " scriptural places, " then " stormy places," followed by the " lairs of wild beasts," and
acter.
then groves and deserts.
places," "ship-building
After these come " devious
places, " " pleasant places, " "
pery places."
shores,
site of
Last of
chasms,
caves,
Erebus and of
sunny places, " " warm places," and lastly "slipall comes his account of "depths," "the pit," the the River Cocytus in the
under world.
The fourteenth book
is
on "public buildings,"
RABANUS AND OTHER PUPILS
but includes private dwellings under
it.
163
It is a
manual of domestic and public architecture of the
ancients, with full spiritual interpretation.
fifteenth
The
book is on the philosophy, poetry and The sixteenth book mythology of the ancients.
be described as a sort of ethnology or sociit
may
ology, as
contains an account of various nations
of men, their languages, their forms of government,
with definitions of
seventeenth book
and military terms. The on " the dust and soil of the earth," that is to say, on minerals and metals. There is first the " soil found in waters," as salt and
civil
is
pitch.
The "common stones"
are next described.
Such are "rock," "cliffs," flint, gypsum, sand and lime. Then come the "distinguished stones," such as jet, asbestus and selenite, the Persian moonstone, whose brightness " is said to wax and wane with the moon." Higher yet come the marbles and ivory, which are assigned separate chapters. After them there is a chapter on precious stones, followed by others on pearls, crystals and glass. The seven metals gold, silver, brass, electrum, tin, lead and
iron
— — conclude the book.
The eighteenth book
ures, numbers,
deals with weights, meas-
and musical and medical terms. The nineteenth is agricultural and botanical, describing in succession the various grains, legumi-
nous plants, vines,
trees,
aromatic herbs and the
describes wars,
common vegetables.
The twentieth
and the different kinds of armor, the various athletic games, ship-building and blacksmithing.
164
ALCUm
twenty-first deals with the domestic arts of
The
house-building, carpentering,
weaving and spin-
ning, and explains fully the costumes of various
nations and the kinds of garments
worn by men
and women.
The twenty-second
details the various
household utensils and tools, beginning with tables, eating and drinking vessels, going on to kitchen
utensils, baskets,
lamps, couches and chairs, and
It falls
ending with garden tools and harness.
What
a mass and a mess
it all is
!
behind
the etymologies of Isidore in point of arrangement
and divisions of the material. It is, moreover, somewhat weakened and diluted. Yet it is not without a general plan. He has, moreover, added
was useful
work much concrete information that no doubt more useful then than Isidore's would have been. Taken with
to Isidore's
for his time
—
the other educational writings of Rabanus,
it
gives
a completeness to his activity as an educational
author which
is
proof of his sagacity
;
for he not
only furnished the
men
of his time with methods
and subjects on the formal side of education, buL met their empty ignorance with a vast collection of the most useful common information that was accessible to him, and so became the teacher of his
time both in regard to the substance of its secular knowledge as well as on the side of method, thus extending his labors far beyond the limits within
which Alcuin had worked.
CHAPTER
VIII
ALCUIN'S LATER INFLUENCE
What
Alcuin had been to the whole of Frankis
land Rabanus was specifically to Germany, and,
though his influence
discernible separately from
the influence of his master, the two soon blended
and carried forward for generations the educaThe strength tional tradition of Western Europe. of the movement was at times centred in one or As a few places and at others dispersed in many. the main stream of learning had flowed from York to Tours and from Tours to Fulda, so it is again visible later as it passes from Fulda to Auxerre, touching Ferrieres, old and new Corbie, Reichenau, St. Gall, and Rheims, one branch of it
finally reaching Paris.
And
yet the stream did
not run unbroken, but with parallel lesser currents
and connecting cross-streams, so that its general widening progress is as diversified as the fan-like sweep of a gulf-stream in the ocean, and can only be rightly measured by taking into account its enIf the current was sometimes parted, tire extent. it was not because the stream did not flow from one source, and if some places were touched only momentarily or left untouched altogether, it was because its volume was not vast enough to over*
165
166
ALCUm
it
spread the whole surface on which
yet the influence of Alcuin
is
flowed.
And
not easy to trace.
There were no new institutions founded on the model of his teaching after his death, and, even in the institutions which had existed, the career of learning was irregular and fluctuating. Schools died out and were again revived in their old places, sometimes to continue for a time in power, sometimes to linger feebly or else to expire finally.
Even the palace
to Erigena,
school of Charles
entered on a
from Alcuin and then undergoing other mutations, never utterly extinct, and yet without leaving behind any continuous record of its doings. Therefore, instead of seeking to gather conclusions from
career of fitful activity, changing
first
the imperfect records of the fluctuating fortunes
of certain places where schools were held, a surer
way
is
to trace Alcuin' s general influence through
the succession of his immediate and remote pupils,
for herein is to be seen the true inner continuity
of education for a century and a half after his
death, if not longer.
some mention of Erigena is in which had crept into the palace school and caused Alcuin such unconBefore doing
this,
place.
The
Irish teaching
cealed anxiety shortly before his death received a
new and
In strong impetus after he was gone. 814 Charles the Great died, and his son Lewis the Pious succeeded him. Soon after Lewis died the
youthful king, Charles the Bald, made John Scotus
Erigena master of the palace school about 845.
ALCUIN'S LATER INFLUENCE
167
Lewis had been careful to keep within the limits laid down by Alcuin, but his successor was of a different temper, and welcomed the acute and witty
representative of the dangerous speculative learning
that was so well fitted to shake unquestioning faith
in tradition.
John brought with him the pro-
scribed Martianus Capella, and extended the influ-
ence of this writer by composing a commentary.
When
appealed to by Hincmar of Eheims to come and help the orthodox faith with his pen, he did not hesitate to quote Greek as well as Latin fathers, and even heathen philosophers whenever convenient, as authorities fit to be cited side by side with
Scripture ; while, as Mr. Mullinger aptly observes,
fill up the measure of his offence, he referred with undisguised approval to the pages of Martianus Capella." ^ The contest had set in between
"to
speculation and tradition, and could no longer be
confined within
the bounds Alcuin would have
approved, and the
new
influence issuing from the
first resisted, after-
teaching of Erigena, though at
wards gradually mingled with the old instruction
given in the monasteries.
But
let
us return to the more prominent of the
later pupils
who
represent the influence of Alcuin,
in the
many
them through Rabanus. Servatus Lupus (805-862) was educated
of
monastery of Ferrieres under Aldrich, the pupil of When Aldrich became archbishop of Alcuin. Sens, he despatched his pupil to Fulda, where he
i
Schools of Charles the Great, p. 186,
168
ALCTJIN
studied under Eabanus, then at the height of his
reputation.
In 836, after a
brilliant career as a
student of letters, as well as in theology, he returned
to Frankland.
Aldrich died soon
after,
and Serabbat of
vatus Lupus succeeded
Ferrieres,
him
in 842 as
where he taught with distinction, gathhim numerous disciples and a considerable library, becoming himself the one purely literary man of his time and cultivating the classical writers to an extent unheard of for centuries. While at Fulda he often repaired to Seligenstadt
ering about
Great, whose friendship he had
to consult Einhard, the biographer of Charles the
made and who then
ruled the abbey of Seligenstadt, where there were
many books.
Einhard's taste for letters and friend-
ship for Servatus promoted his progress in study
and thus supplemented the instruction of Fulda. Haymo, a fellow-pupil with Eabanus at Fulda and one of his companions later under the instruction of Alcuin at Tours, returned from Tours to Fulda, where he taught in the school for some He left Fulda in 841, to become bishop of time. Halberstadt, and died in 853.
first
Walafrid Strabo (born 807), after pursuing his studies as a boy at the school of Eeichenau, on Lake Constance, was sent thence to Fulda to study under Eabanus. From Fulda he returned to
Eeichenau, and, after directing the school of that
abbey for several years, was elected
842.
its
abbat in
He
transplanted thither the studies of Fulda,
and to his repute as a teacher added considerable
ALCUIN'S LATER INFLUENCE
169
accomplishment as a poet. His fame was probably His undisputed merit, greater than his merit. however, consists in his extension of the teaching
of his master.
" Docuit multos "
is
the testimony
of Rabanus himself, in the epitaph he composed
for Walafrid, and indicates that his scholars were numerous enough to call for special mention. Eudolph (800?-866), a monk of Fulda, was both the pupil and biographer of Rabanus, succeeding him in the care of the abbey school. Though of course far inferior to his master, he was thought a man of great learning, and continued the methods of Eabanus, though with less ability. Ermenric, one of his scholars, who afterwards became abbat of EUwangen, testifies, in a work addressed to him, to the profundity of his erudition and his success
as a teacher.
Liutpert, the capable abbat of
New
Corbie,
who
also
died in 853, had also been a
monk
at Fulda, with
Rabanus as the master of
served as the
of
first
his studies.
He
abbat of Hirschau, a community
monks who had gone out from Fulda by the commission of Rabanus. The monk Maginhard was also at Fulda about the same time. Paschasius Ratpert (died 865) retired from the world to the monastery of Corbie, then governed by
Adelhard.
pupils.
He
applied himself to study with such
success as to be selected to instruct his fellow-
Cicero and Terence were favorite writers with him before he had entered the monastery. His activity and diligence were marked. He
170
ALCUIN
accompanied Adelliard to found the abbey of New Corbie in Saxony. He taught many pupils, and among them the younger Adelhard, Anscharius, archbishop of Hamburg, Hildemann and Odo,
each of
In 844, he was Warin, where he died in of old Corbie, himself made abbat His of Beauvais, succeeded him 865. pupil, Odo
as abbat.
whom became bishop of later abbat of New Corbie.
Beauvais,
and
Among
other
monks
of old Corbie
who
deserve
mention was Ratramnus, whose knowledge of the arts was considerable and whose ecclesiastical reading embraced not only the Latin but the Greek
fathers.
He
entered the monastery probably about
its
the time Adelhard became
abbat, and died there,
having passed
all his life as
a simple monk, with-
out aspiring to any preferment.
Among his
friends
were Servatus Lupus and Odo of Beauvais. Another monk of the monastery of New Corbie in Saxony, who may be connected with the influence of Alcuin and Rabanus, was Rembert, who was consecrated a monk by Anscharius, whom he succeeded as archbishop of
Passing notice
Denis,
Hamburg in 856. may be given
died
in 840,
to Hilduin, the fel-
low-pupil of Servatus Lupus and later abbat of St.
who
archbishop of Vieime,
and Ado (800?-875), who had been offered in
youth to the monastery of Ferrieres by his parents, and was educated there under Servatus Lupus. Werembert (died 884) pursued his youthful studies at Fulda under Rabanus Maurus, and then went
ALCUIN'S LATER INFLUENCE
to the important abbey of St. Gall.
171
One of his Eabanus was Otfried of Weissenburg. Werembert was proficient, according to the chroniclers of his time, both in Latin and
fellow-students
under
Greek, the fine
arts,
philosophy, poetry, music,
and sculpture, as well as theology and history. We know little of his life beyond the fact that he was a monk of St. Gall and taught for a long time. Grimaldus, abbat of St. Gall, was educated in the monastery of Reichenau, where his education was touched by the influence of Alcuin and Rabanus
through his friend Ermenric, the
enau,
monk of Reichwho had been a pupil of Walafrid Strabo. Harmot (died 884), a friend and fellow-pupil with
Werembert, virtually governed the abbey of
Gall even during the lifetime of Grimaldus.
to succeed him.
ises
St.
When
Grimaldus died, Harmot was unanimously elected
He was a writer of various treatand also enriched the abbey library greatly. Three monks of St. Gall, closely connected by
warm personal friendship common distinction as
for each
scholars,
reason of their
other and their
were Ratbert, Notker, and Tutilo, who, though
apparently not educated by teachers in the direct
line of succession
from Alcuin and Rabanus, were
yet familiar with the writings of these masters.
Notker may be singled out for separate entered St. Gall as a pupil about 840, and after a while became head of the inner school, the monastery then containing an inner
Of the
three,
mention.
He
school for the
oblati,
who were
offered for mouastio
172
life,
ALCUm
and an outer school for the extemi.
In one of Rabanus with Jerome, Augustine and Chrysostom, and in another work extols the grammar of Alcuin as Among eclipsing even that of Priscian himself. those touched by Notker's influence were Regino, the abbat of Prum, and Robert, bishop of Metz. Turning from St. Gall to Auxerre in Frankland,
his commentaries he ranks the writings of
the influence of Alcuin and Rabanus again appears
as a dominating impulse.
Eric of Auxerre (about 834-881),
when a
boy,
entered the monastery of St. Germain at Auxerre.
After pursuing his early studies at that place he
went to Fulda, where he was instructed by Haymo, and afterwards to Ferrieres, where Servatus Lupus was his master. When the period of his study under Servatus was completed he returned to Auxerre, and was given charge of the monastery school of St. Germain in that place. Among his pupils were Hucbald and the famous Remy of
Auxerre.
Hucbald (died about
930),
the
monk
of
St.
Amand, was regarded as the leading teacher of his time next to Remy. He was a nephew of Milo,
the Christian poet and student of both the liberal
and
Alcuin.
who had studied under a pupil of pursued his earlier studies under the superintendence of his uncle, and then passed from
fine arts,
He
St.
Amand
to
the monastery of St. Germain at
Auxerre, where he completed his course under Eric
in
company with Remy and other pupils of
note.
ALCUTN'S LATEE INFLUENCE
His proficiency in the
173
arts was notable to such an extent that one of his eulogists asserts " he was so
distinguished for his skill in the liberal arts, that
he was compared with the ancient philosophers." The most famous teacher in Frankland, as the ninth century passed away and the tenth opened,
was Remy of Auxerre.
He
early became a
monk
at the abbey of St. Germain, where his teacher
was Eric of Auxerre, the pupil of Haymo and
Servatus Lupus.
of
Among
his fellow-pupils
was,
as has been said, the celebrated Hucbald, the
monk
Amand.
in
On
the death of Eric he succeeded to
the charge of the school.
away
Soon after he was called company with Hucbald by summons of
Fulco, archbishop of Rheims, to re-establish the
schools of that diocese which had fallen into decay.
Eemy taught
both the liberal arts and theology, and
among his auditors was the archbishop himself. The scholars whom Remy taught and their successors continued the school at Rheims well through the tenth century, and among the later pupils of the school were the historian Frodoard, Abbo of
Fleury, and Hildebold and Blidulph, two pupils
of
Remy
himself
who were
to Paris,
influential in establish-
Fulco died, Remy where he established a public, not a monastic school, open to all and free from ecclesiastical rule. Here he taught philosophy and the liberal arts, as well as theology, expounding schools in Lorraine.
When
went from Rheims
ing the treatise
to Augustine,
On
the Categories
then attributed
and teaching the
liberal arts gener-
174
ALCUm
ally witli Martianus Capella as the text-book, thus
finally establishing that hitherto suspected author
in a place of honor.
easily understood,
To render Martianus more
"the
first
he wrote an elaborate comthis school,
mentary.
Out of
cradle
of the University of Paris, "^
came Odo, abbat of
It is doubt-
Cluny, the greatest pupil of Eemy.
less true that
Remy marks
a
new period
in the
revival of studies, and some have considered his
influence comparable to that of Alcuin or Rabanus.
Though
in the
this cannot be shown, it is yet fair to say, words of an old chronicler, that " the studies which had become obsolete for a long time began to flourish again under him, and indeed sprang up, as it were, newly born from his teaching." ^ Among his writings were commentaries on the grammarians, Donatus and Priscian, and a treatise on music, besides his already-mentioned exposition of Martianus
Capella.
Odo of Cluny (880-942) was offered by his parents while yet a child to the monastery of St. Martin
at Tours,
but did not at once become a monk.
After passing his youth in secular
to
life, he returned Tours at the age of nineteen and became a canon His marked taste for Virgil and of St. Martin. the other ancient authors on the side of literature was supplemented by the study of Priscian on the He soon conceived a desire of side of grammar.
studying the arts with more thoroughness and went
1
Histoire LiUraire de la France, VI, p. 100.
2 Histoire
LiUraire de
la
France, VI,
p. 101.
ALCUIN'S LATER rNFLUENCE
from Tours to Paris, where
giving public lectures.
dialectics
176
Remy of Auxerre was Under him Odo studied and music with special attention, and all
the other liberal arts.
he
On returning to Tours on uncertain authority, to have had Soon after he resolved charge of the abbey school. to renounce the world finally and give himself to monastic life. When in his thirtieth year he entered a monastery in Burgundy, taking with him "one hundred books," probably his whole library. After the death of the abbat in 927, Odo was elected to succeed him, and became not only the head of that monastery, but of the more important abbey of Cluny and others. He was influential in bringing about a general monastic reform in Frankland and
is
said,
in connection therewith the establishment of a
large
number
of schools.
school at rieury.
One of these was the Another was revived in the
abbey of Gorz, near Metz, whither many pupils of the school at Rheims went to form a learned monastic community. He also established instruction at the abbey of St. Julian of Tours, where he himself spent some time. His reputation spread rapidly, and he was consulted by the pope and by princes, as Rabanus had been before. He made three journeys to Rome. His death occurred about 942. Such were the men who continued the influence
of Alcuin and Rabanus
tenth century.
down to the middle of the They and their associates sat in the
But they were not
all,
high places of education under the successors of
Charles the Great.
for
176
ALCUIN
history fails to preserve a record of their times
with completeness. It is, therefore, only fair to presume that they embody less than the full influence of the movement started by Alcuin, though
undoubtedly the greatest part of
cession the
it.
In this suc-
names that stand out pre-eminent are
Werembert,
Eric of Auxerre,
those of Servatus Lupus, Walafrid Strabo, Paschasius
Ratpert,
Odo of Cluny. The middle of the tenth century marks the limit of what may be styled the age of Alcuin
Hucbald,
of Auxerre and
in education,
for
Remy
at this point his direct influ-
ence gradually disappears, and yet, amid the devastations
and wars of the age that followed, there
are indications of the continuance of schools traceable to the influences of the preceding age.
The
pupils of
Odo
of Cluny were numerous, and the
school of Rheims, revived by Remy and Hucbald, had the great Gerbert, afterwards Pope Sylvester the Second, for a time as its master. The many pupils of Odo and Gerbert maintained almost unaided the cause of education at the end of the
tenth century.
At
this
point the passing-on of
learning from hand to hand becomes too obscure
to follow, but early in the eleventh century schools
are again discernible in the principal monasteries,
taught by masters
century.
who
could have received the
tradition of learning only
from the men of the last Meanwhile Paris was assuming more and more the character of a metropolis, having become The schools near the fixed residence of royalty.
ALCUm'S LATER INFLUENCE
177
by, including Tours, Bee in Normandy, and Chartres,
became more closely connected with the capital, and with the increase of intellectual speculation and controversy there came a great increase of masters and pupils. The time was ripe for repeating the
prophetic experiment of
of teachers arose.
"
had as
Eemy. A new succession of them was Drogo, who a pupil John the Deaf. John the Deaf, in
One
turn, instructed Roscellinus of Chartres,
and about
Koscellinus clusters that brilliant galaxy of disciples,
Peter of Cluny, Odo of Cambray, William of
Champeaux, and Abelard.^
We
are
now
at the
Old things have passed away and with the opening of the Univeropening of the twelfth century.
sity of Paris the
set in.
new age of
scholasticism has fully
Eulogists of Alcuin have sought to do
him the
surpassing honor of adjudging
tor of the University of Paris
him the
true ances-
and thereby of the
universities of
modem Europe.
The claim
scarcely
it
needs to be more than mentioned before
refuted.
is
Neither on the side of instruction nor of
external organization did he entertain conceptions which would naturally have produced such a result, nor is there any evidence that, without the intellectual awakening that came to Europe under the name of scholasticism, the universities would have been founded, or, if founded, that they would have been capable of the development to which they attained. The awakening impulse came from with1
Monnier, Alcuin
et
Charlemagne, pp. 266-268.
178
out,
ALCUm
through the introduction of the philosophical works of Greek genius in Latin versions made from the intermediary Arabic. It was these that quickened the almost lifeless learning and eduBut, admitting this without cation of Europe. reserve, it yet remains true that the schools of the cathedrals and monasteries, the natural successors and heirs of Alcuin, were the centres of student life and of the teaching tradition. Without the existence of such centres, established as
they had been
for
generations,
it
is
doubtful
whether universities would have arisen. Alcuin' s work was incipient and premonitory, and the outcome was greater than his plan. But his work had first to be done before later developments were possible. It had a distinctive life of
its
own, which seems to have been spent by the end
of the tenth century.
But there are no absolute
Therefore,
breaks in
human
history.
when from
the middle of the tenth century to the middle of
the eleventh the teachers and schools that descend
from him are nearly or wholly lost to view, let it not be assumed that their influence ceased. It was a time of great confusion and of consequent loss of
historic records.
The
little
learning that lingered,
it
however,
is
not to be despised, though
glim-
mered feebly enough in the darkness, for
the only learning.
it
was
it is
When,
therefore,
later,
new and
unrevolutionary teachers appear
the
whom
not possible to connect by express evidence with
men
of the century before^ it is to be presumed
ALCUIN'S LATER INFLUENCE
that they took
179
tradition, which,
carried forward an existing though obscure to us, was plain There was but one tradition available to them. for their use, and that flowed from the schools of the age quickened by Alcuin.
up and
APPENDIX
EDITIONS OF ALCUIN
I.
Froben's Edition is Volumes akd CI OF Mignb's Patrologia Latino.
first
The
edition of Alcuin's collected works
was
edited by Ducliesne and printed at Paris in 1617.
Various scattered treatises, not included in this
were afterwards discovered and printed. In 1777 Froben, the prince-abbat of St. Emmeran at Ratisbon, brought out a far more complete edition than had yet appeared, with an improved text and a vast amount of illustrative and critical matter. This edition of Froben, with the addition of Alcuin's commentary on the Apocalypse, which was brought to light in 1837, is reprinted in volumes C and CI of Migne's Patrologia Latina, published
edition,
at Paris in 1863.
Migne's reprint contains the
works,
in-
most complete
cluding
all
collection of Alcuin's
the chief treatises
known
to have
been
written by him.
It is doubtful if
any of his writ-
ings remain in manuscript to be added to the list
of works printed in Migne, beyond a few minor
and a very considerable number of letters, some of which have been since edited by Jaff^ and
treatises
188
184
ALCUm
Duemmler. The arrangement of Alcuin's writings in Migne is as follows
:
—
I.
Epistles, Vol. C, 135-515.
Of the two hundred and thirty-two letters, two by Charles (Nos. lxxxi and clviii) and the rest are by Alcuin. Fully five-sixths of them are written between 796, when he went to
are written
Tours, and 804,
— the
last eight years of his life.
They may accordingly be taken
final
as containing his
opinions in regard to whatever matters they
treat.
His best
literary style is also in them, the
Latinity having as a rule both more fluency and
propriety than in his other writings.^
Some
of
them
are long
and carefully composed in
of his
set form,
containing
many
favorite epistolary flour-
ishes or deflorationes, while others are in the lightest vein.
The subject-matter
is
by turns
theological,
moral, ecclesiastical, political,
and perHis chief correspondents were Charles the Great and Amo. We have over thirty of his letters to each
didactic,
sonal and well reflects his varied activities.
1
Alcnin's style in general
It is inferior to tliat of
is far removed from pore Latinity. Einhard, the biographer of Charles, who
had fair success in writing after as good a model as Suetonius, whereas nothing of Alcuin's approaches this. His faults, or
rather the apparently ineradicable faults of his time, touch the
elementary questions of syntax. For example, he uses the tenses
incorrectly in subordinate sequences, joins ut in final clauses
indifferently with the indicative or subjunctive, writes a participle
where a
finite
verb
is
in place,
perfect where he ought to use the perfect.
and often employs the pluCompare Monumenta
Alcuiniana, pp. 36 and 38.
EDITIONS OF
of them.
ALCUm
186
His other correspondents include the
Pope, the patriarchs of Jerusalem and of Aquileia, kings in Britain, members of the imperial family
in Frankland,
archbishops, bishops, monasteries,
Of all his writings, the letters and his pupils. have the highest historical value, being of capital
importance for understanding the chief questions
in
Church and State during the
latter half of the
eighth century.
II.
1.
EXEGETICAL WORKS, 515-1155.
Questions and Answers on Genesis, 515-569.
is
This
dedicated to his pupil Sigulf.
It is partly
indebted to Jerome's Qucestiones in Genesin and to
St. Gregory's Moralia.
2.
Enchiridion, or Brief Exposition of Certain
Psalms, 569-639.
These are the seven penitential Psalms, the 118th Psalm, and the fifteen "gradual" Psalms. It is apparently an original composition, and was dedicated to Arno, who had asked Alcuin to compose such a treatise. 3. Commentary on the Song of Solomon, 639(our 119th)
655.
Probably an original composition.
It is
dedi-
cated to no one by name, though in the prefixed
verses a certain juvenis, probably a pupil,
is
ex-
horted to read
added the Epistola ad Daphnin, a short commentary on the
it.
At
the end of
it is
text in Solomon's
Song,
"There are threescore
queens and fourscore concubines."
186
4.
ALCUIN
Commentary on Ecclesiastes, 665-723. In the preface to this commentary, Alcuin says, "I have composed a short commentary on this book out of the works of the holy fathers and partly from the commentary of Jerome." It is dedicated to his pupils, Onias, Candidus, and Nathanael. 5. Interpretations of the Hebrew Names of our
Lord's Progenitors, 723-733.
It is dedicated to Charles and is based on Bede's Homily on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 6. Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, 733-
1007.
Alcuin's principal exegetical work, written about
800 and dedicated to Gisela, the
the daughter, of Charles.
sister,
and Rotrud,
It is based principally
upon Augustine, Ambrose, Gregory and Bede. 7. A Treatise on St. PauVs Epistles to Titus, Philemon, and to the Hebrews, 1007-1083. There is no dedication. The comments on Titus and Philemon are compiled from Jerome's commentaries on those epistles. The comments on Hebrews are also compiled from the Latin version of Chrysostom's commentary on Hebrews made by Mutianus.
8.
A Brief Commentary
on Some Sayings of
St.
Paul, 1083-1086.
This short note may be original in part, though but only in part, for Jerome on Hebrews can be
traced in
9.
it.
Commentary on
the Apocalypse,
1086-1156.
lost,
Part of the treatise appears to be
as the
EDITIONS OP
exposition
ALCUm
in
187
breaks
off
abruptly
chapter xiL
Possibly, however, Alcuin did not complete the
work.
the
It
is
based on Bede's
Commentary on
with supplementary use of the writings of Augustine, Jerome, Victorinus, TychoApocalypse,
nius,
Primasius, and
Ambrose Autpert, one of
Alcuin's contemporaries.
III.
1.
Dogmatic Works,
the Trinity, 9-63.
Vol. CI, 9-303.
On
Written in Tours toward the close of Alcuin's life and dedicated to Charles after he had become emAugustine's treatise On the Holy Trinity peror.
is
Alcuin's chief reliance.
Alcuin's Twenty-Eight
Questions on the
Trinity, dedicated to his pupil
Fridugis, are appended.
2.
On
the Procession
of the Holy Spirit, 63-83.
A
3.
collection of testimonies
from Scripture and
the fathers, dedicated to Charles.
Writings against Felix of Urgel
and Elipandus
of Toledo, 83-303. These contain an elaborate argument, based on
the fathers, exhibiting the Catholic faith as against the Adoptionist heresy.
They show much vigor
and contain Alcuin's ablest work.
IV. LiTUBOICAL
1. 2.
AND MOBAL WOBKS,
439-655.
Book of Sacraments, 445-466.
On
the
Psalms, 465-509.
for the Dead, 509-611.
3.
Offices
4.
On
the Ceremonies
of Baptism, 611-613L
188
ALCUm
They
These four contain the forms of worship, both
general and special, for ecclesiastical service.
are excerpted and arranged from older liturgies.
6.
On
the Virtues
and
Vices, 613-639.
moral treatise dedicated to Count Wido and taken from Augustine.
6.
A
On
the
This
7.
is
also taken
Nature of the Soul, 639-649. from Augustine, and
of Sins, 649-655.
is dedi-
cated to Gundrada (Eulalia).
On
the Confession
A
short letter of exhortation addressed to the
of St. Martin at Tours.
monks
V. Lives of the Saints, 655-723.
1.
2. 3. 4.
The Life of St. Martin of Tours, 657-663. The Life of St. Vedast, 663-681. Life of St. Biquier, 681-690.
Life of St. Willibrord, 690-723.
VI. Poems, 723-847.
Miscellaneous Poems, 723-812. These include prayers, inscriptions for books, metrical histories of the Old and New Testaments, inscriptions for churches and altars, hortatory moral verses, miscellaneous inscriptions, poems to different friends, epitaphs, epigrams, and riddles. The metres employed are almost exclusively the dactylic hexameter or the elegiac. They are not conformed to a strict regard for quantity, but are probably better than most of the poetry of that time in this respect. As poetry, they have little claim to admiration, though there are not wanting
1.
:
EDITIONS OF ALCUIN
189
many
2.
touches of description and imagination that
the Saints of the
are pleasant.
Poem on
Church at York,
812-847.
This poem in heroic verse
ings
is
Alcnin's history of
the Church at York, partly based on Bede's writ-
and partly on
his
own
personal knowledge.
composed shortly before he went to Frankland. It consists of 1657 hexameter verses, modeled to a considerable extent on Virgil and attempting a sustained dignity of style. Its value for the history of Alcuin's connection with
It appears to have been
York
is,
of course, very great.
VII. Didactic Works, 847-1001.
(For an analysis of these didactic writings see the
ter of this volume.)
1.
fifth
chap-
Grammar, 847-901.
Orthography, 901-919.
2.
3. 4. 6.
Dialogue on Rhetoric and the Virtues, 919-949.
Dialectics, 949-975.
Disputation of the Royal and Most Noble Youth Pippin with Albinus the Scholastic, 975-979.
6.
On
the Calculation
of Easter, 979-1001.
VIII.
WOBKS DOUBTFULLY
ASCRIBED TO Al-
CUIN, 1001-1169.
Two
1.
of these are of interest
2.
The Disputation of the Boys, 1097-1143, and The Propositions of Alcuin for Wlietting the Wit
of Youth, 1143-1161.
IX. Spurious Works, 1173-1297.
190
ALCUIN
II.
Monumenta Alcuiniana a Philippo Jq0o
Ediderunt WcUtenbach
Berlin, 1873.
et
Pr<»-
parata.
Duemmler.
pp.
vi 4- 912.
This is the sixth volume in the Bibliotheca Rerum Germanicarum begun under the editorial care of JafEe, who died in 1870. Wattenbach and Duemmler carried on the work interrupted by Jaffe's The volume they have edited untimely death. contains the following documents 1. T?ie Life of Alcuin, composed in the year 829 by an anonymous biographer, who states that he was a pupil of Sigulf. It is of distinct value.
:
—
To
2. 3.
this the following writings of Alcuin are sub:
joined
—
Life of St. WilUbr&rd.
Poem on
Epistles.
the Saints
of the Church at York.
4
The
ing
is
Epistles are edited
by Duemmler, and the
Their editIf only the rest of
other three documents by Wattenbach.
a model in every way.
Alcuin could be as faithfully revised, the service
rendered to learning would indeed be great.
The
text
is
thoroughly purged after a
scientific
method, variant readings are indicated so far as significant, and the body of interpretative matter
and cross-references, printed at the foot of each page, gives abundant illustration of the bearings of the text. The Epistles, which are of such prime
intrinsic importance,
fill
the chief part of the book.
EDITIONS OF ALCUIN
Their number
is
191
largely increased, so that
we may
now
consult two hundred and ninety-two of Al-
cuin's composition, besides fourteen letters written
by others and connected with his correspondence. Their chronology is cleared up and other obscurities are fully explained for the first time. The poem On the Saints of the Church at York is also elucidated by useful notes, and particularly by the references to Bede's Ecclesiastical History printed on
the margin.
TABLE OF DATES
B.C. 384-822 Aristotle. His writings mark the highest development of Greek doctrine respecting education.
100-46 Cicero.
Frequent notices of the
culture,
arts of the
Greeks, which by his time had become the
groundwork of Eoman
116-27 Varro.
His Lihri
Novem DiscipUnarum,
the
thesaurus of information on the arts for
later Latin writers,
8-A.D. 66 Seneca,
Epistle to Lucilius
to
on
liberal studies
and other references draws from Varro.
A.D. 36-96
Quintilian.
Institutio
education.
He
on
Oratoria,
partly
education.
Varro his authority.
n
364-430 Augustine.
Wrote
DiscipUnarum
Libri
shortly after his conversion.
Other writ-
ings with educational bearings are
trina Christiana,
tiones.
De Doc-
De
Ordine, and Betrac-
Varro
is
his great authority.
Before 439 Martianus Capella's book
logice et Mercurice.
De
Nuptiis PMlo-
481-525 Boethius.
taries.
Various translations and commen-
468-669 Cassidorus.
——
De Artibus ac Disciplinis Liberalium Litterarum -636 Isidore. Compiled the Etymologice, the first
encyclopedia.
1A3
IM
TABLE OF DATES
m
About 650 Christian
Irish learning passing into Britain. 669 Theodore of Tarsus comes to Canterbury.
628-690 Benedict Biscop founds Wearmouth and Yarrow, where was represented
of the West.
all
the learning
673-735 Bede, the pupil of Benedict Biscop.
732 Egbert, the friend of Bede, becomes archbishop
of
York and founds the cathedral school there.
IV
About 735 Alcuin
of
bom in Northumbria at
Franks,
742 Charles the Great bom,
the
Martel.
— son
or near York.
of Pepin, king of
and grandson
Charles
Before 745 Alcuin enters the school at York, founded by
archbishop Egbert and conducted by Albert.
766 Egbert dies; bishop
;
Albert succeeds him
Alcuin, in
as arch-
Alcuin becomes master of the school
at York.
visits
company with .^bert,
Frankland and perhaps Rome also. 771 Charles becomes sole king of the Franks. 776 Rabanus Maums bom at Mayence. 780 Alcuin visits Italy, meeting Charles at Pavla.
JElbert dies.
781 Alcuin again visits Italy to obtain from the Pope the pallium for his fellow-pupil, the elder
Eanbald,
bishop of York.
who had succeeded Albert as archAt Parma he meets Charles, who invites him to come and teach at his
court.
782 Alcuin leaves York to become master of the
palace school at Aachen.
787 Charles, returning
home from a
visit to Italy,
TABLE OF DATES
brings into Frankland masters of
196
and
his
arithmetic.
In
tlie
grammar same year he issues
education.
great
is
Capitulary promoting
This
followed by other injunctions to the
same
effect in 788, 789,
and as
late as 802.
790-792 Alcuin revisits Britain.
792 Alcuin returns to Aachen to combat the disturbing heresies of Adoptionism and image-worship.
794 Alcuin participates in the proceedings of the
Council at Frankfort, which condemns Adoptionism and image-worship.
796 Alcuin appointed abbat of Tours. 800 In June Charles visits Alcuin at Tours, accompanied by Queen Liutgard, who dies there. Alcuin goes with Charles to Aachen, where
he engages in public debate with Felix of Urgel, who acknowledges himself overcome and retracts his Adoptionist errors. 800 On Cliristmas day in Rome Charles is crowned Emperor of the Holy Boman Empire by the
Pope.
802 Rabanus Maurus studies under Alcuin at Tours. 804 On May 19th Alcuin dies and is buried at Tours.
The
chief posts of educational advantage are
in possession of his friends or pupils.
Theodulf
is
virtual minister of
education to
Charles the Great,
Amo
archbishop of Salz-
burg, Riculf of Mayence, Rigbod of Treves,
Leidrad of Lyons and Eanbald II of York.
Fridugis succeeds Alcuin as abbat of St. Martin at Tours,
AugUbert is abbat of St. Riquier, Adelhard of Corbie neai Amiens, St. Benedict of Aniane in Languedoc, and Rabanus is in charge of the school at
Sigulf of Ferrieres,
Fulda.
190
TABLE OF DATES
814
On June 28th Charles the Great dies and is buried
at Aachen.
Lewis the Pious succeeds him.
821 Aldrich, a pupU of Alcuin at Tours, succeeds
Sigulf as abbat of Ferrieres.
Adelhard 822 Rabanus becomes abbat of Fulda. founds the monastery of New Corbie in Saxony, becoming
its first
abbat, and continuing
as abbat of old Corbie also.
842 Servatus Lupus, educated under Aldrich at Ferrieres and Rabanus at Fulda, succeeds Aldrich
as abbat of Ferrieres.
Walafrid Strabo, pupil of Rabanus, becomes
abbat of Reichenau.
Rabanus retires from the rule of Fulda. 845 John Scotus Erigena master of the palace schooL 866 Rabanus dies near Mayence. 865 Paschasius Ratpert, pupil of Adelhard and
abbat of old Corbie,
dies.
By
870-880 The influence of Alcuin and Rabanus reaches
St. Gall,
being represented there by
Werem-
bert,
Grimaldus, Notker and others.
He was educated at Fulda under Haymo, the pupil of Alcuin and fellow-student with Rabanus, and at Ferrieres under Servatus Lupus, the pupil of Aldrich. About 900 Remy of Auxerre, educated in company with Hucbald under Eric of Auxerre, opens his
881 Death of Eric of Auxerre.
public school in Paris.
who had been educated Tours and later under Remy at Paris. About 950-1000 Education sustained almost entirely by
942 Death of Odo of Cluny,
at
pupils of
Odo and
Gerbert, for a while master
of the school at
Rheims revived by Remy
9nd Hucbald.
BOOKS ON ALCUIN
The
following
list
contains a selection of books
cles of interest
on Alcuin.
and arti» Those marked with an asterisk
are especially helpful.
Adamson
:
Alcuin, in Leslie
Stephen's Dictionary of
National Biography. Bahrdt: Alcuin der Lehrer Karls des Orossen.
burg, 1861.
Lauen-
* Ceillier
:
Histoire Generale des Auteurs iSacris et UccleParis, 1862.
d* Amiens, Vol. I.
siastiques, Vol. XII.
Corbet : Hagiographie du Diocese
Paris
and Amiens, 1868. * Duemmler Alcuin, in the Allgemeine Deutsche Bio:
graphic.
Dupuy
1876.
:
Alcuin
et VJ^cole
de St. Martin de Tours.
Tours,
Hamelin:
Essai sur la
Vie
et
les
Ouvrages
d^ Alcuin.
Rennes, 1873. * Histoire Literaire de la France, Vols. IV, V, VI.
1866.
Paris,
Laforet
:
sous Charlemagne.
:
Alcuin 'Restaurateur des Sciences en Occident Louvain, 1851.
Lorenz Alcuins Leben. Halle, 1829. * Lorenz The Life of Alcuin, translated from the German by Jane Mary Slee. London, 1837. Meier: Ausgewahlte Schriften von Columban, Alcuin,
:
U.S.V3.,
in Vol. Ill of the Bibliothek der katholischen
Pada-
gogik.
Freiburg im Breisgau, 1890.
:
* Monnier
Alcuin
et
Charlemagne.
Paris, 1864.
197
198
BOOKS ON ALCUIN
:
Monnier
Alcuin
et
son influence
litteraire, religieuse,
d
politique sur les Franks.
Paris, 1853.
* Mullinger : The Schools of Charles the Great.
1877.
London,
Sickel
:
emy of Science,
* Stabbs
raphy.
:
Alcuinstudien, in the Journal of the Vienna AcadVol. LXXIX, pp. 461-650. Vienna, 1876.
Alcuin, in the Dictionary of Christian Bioget
Thery
:
Alcuin (L'JScole
VAcademie Palatines).
Ami-
ens, 1878.
* Werner Alcuin und sein Jahrhundert. Vienna, 1881. Rabanus Mauros Collected Works in Migne's Patrologia
: :
Latina, Vols.
CVH-CXIL
INDEX
AIcTiln,
"
Aachen,
39, 59, 00, 71, 86 $qq.
On the Seven ArU, lOS. DeCurtuet Saltu LutuBt
108, 189.
Abelard, 177.
" "
••
Propositions in ArithiMtic, 108-112, 189.
Abbo,
173.
Academy
of Plato, 48.
Method
of teaching, 45.
Adelhard, 43, 169, 170. Adelhard, The Younger, 170.
Character, 117-123. Pupili, 38, 42-47, 124-128,
166.
"
Ado,
170.
60, 62, 68, 86.
Adoptioniam,
.fidilbert, 77.
"
Connections with
nus, 126-129.
Bab*>
.Albert, 31, 32, 33, 34, 38, 67, 7S.
" AeneodB,"
AlbinuB, 36.
85.
" Later influence, lS6-lTt. AlcuinuB, 35.
Aldhelm,
34.
Albinue (Aleuin), 44, 10«,13T. Aleimua, 35, 140.
Aleuin, Birth, 31.
Aldrich, 124, 167, 161.
AlphabeU,
St.
155, 169. 172,
Amand,
171
"
" " "
"
Touth, 31, 33. Education at York, 81-33.
Vi«it» to Italy, 38, 39.
Ambrose, 34, Amiens, 124.
36, 90.
Angilbert, 43, 124.
Maiter of Palace School,
40-63.
Anglo-Saxon Church, Aniane, 125.
AnschariuB, 170.
28, 29.
" " "
«• ••
Abbat of Tours, 63, 64-88. Death and burial, 87, 88.
Writings in general, 8892, 183-191.
Antony,
44.
Apostolical constitntioaa.
Ml
Apuleius,
18.
Educational writingt, 92116, 189.
Aquila, 44. Arator, 35, 140. Architecture, 7, 21.
Aristotle, 4, 6, 22, 28, 34, S6.
Orammar,
92-102, 189.
Orthography,W2,l03,lB9.
Ehetoric, 104, 105, 189. DiaUctiet, 106, 106, 189.
"
••
Arithmetic,
5, 6, 7, 8 $gq. Arithmetical puzxlea, TL
Disputation qf Boys, 106,
189.
Arno,
43, 54, 124.
44.
Arsenius,
••
JHsputation
106-108. 180.
cf P«pin,
Aries Liberales, 6, 147. Arts (see Seven Liberal Arta).
199
200
INDEX
Canterbury, 29, 30, 7T.
Canticles,
Art$ and DitcipUnes of Liberal
Letters, 23.
Book
of, 07.
Astrology (tee alao Aatronomy),
7, 16, 97.
Capella (see Martianus Capella).
Astronomy,
6, 0,
8 $qq.
Capitulary of 787, 49-51 tqq., 126. Capitularies of 789, 53, 64.
Capitulary of 802, 54.
Atbanasius, 34. Athens, 48.
" Atom,"
164.
Carloman, 125. Caroline Bookt,
62.
Aadulf, 44. AugrusUne,
172, 173.
Caroline Minuscules, 70.
10, 11-18, 20, 24, 34, 3«,
Cassiodorus, 23, 26, 27, 34, 36, 37,
82, 92, 108, 147.
46, 90, 92, 135, 138, 146, 147, 150,
Categories, Treatise on the, 87,
Pseudo-Aagnstine
On
the Cate-
92, 105, 173.
gories, 37, 92, 106, 173.
Cathedral schools, 66, 67.
Chalcidius, 144.
Augustine the monk of Canterbury, 29.
Charlemagne
(see
Charles
the
Auxerre, 166, 172. Ats, 44. ATars, 41.
Great) , Preface.
B
Charles Martel, 41, 86. Charles, son of Charles the Oreat,
43.
Barbarisms in Latin (see "Bnsticity"),102.
Basil, 34.
Charles the Bald, 166.
Cliarles the Oreat, 1, 2, 28, 87, 89,
40, 45, 46, 47 sqq.,
and Table of
Baugulf , 40, 126. Bee, 177. Bede, 29, 30, 34, 36,
150, 157.
Dates.
Chartres, 177.
37, 65, 68, 72,
Chronicles,
Cicero,
Book
of, 79.
86(t), 90, 92, 102, 108, 112, 119,
Chrysostom,
34, 90, 172.
6, 22, 25, 28, 34, 36, 104, 160.
Beecbwood,
St.
125.
Benedict, 125.
Clement, 35, 140. Cluny, 174, 175, 177.
Coelfrith, 29.
Benedict Biscop, 66. Benedictine order, 05, 126.
Bezeleel, 44.
Biscop, Benedict, 20, 66. Blidulph, 173.
Columba, 44. Comminian, 35. Compulsory edaeation,
66b
Boethius, 22, 23, 25, 27, 84, 88, 87,
105, 141, 150.
Computtis, 58, 154. Copying of books, 70-73.
Corbie,
New,
124, 165, 169, 170.
Boissier, 7.
Corbie, Old, 124, 165, 169, 170.
Boniface, 126, 126. Braulio, 26.
Britain, 27, 28, S9.
Cuculus, 38. " Cyclic Disciplinea," 18.
Bucbonia, 126.
Damoetaa,
Calwinus, 38. Candidiu,44.
Dares, 47.
44.
Darid, 44,
79. Stl
INDEX
Delia, 44.
St.
201
Denis, 124, 170. De Doctrina Chrittiana, 12, 138. De Ordine, 16.
X>e Nuptiia
Finger-reckoning, 160 $qq. Flaccus, 83, 86.
PhOologia
7,
et
Mereu-
FlaccuB Albinus, 44. Flenry, 173, 175. Flogging, 76.
Fortunatus, 35, 140. Frankfort, Council of, 00.
Fridugls, 38, 42, 58, 87, 126.
riot, 7, 18, 19-21.
Dialectics, 5, 6,
8 $qq.
Ditciplinarwn JAbri, 16. " Disciplines," Yarro's nine,
17.
7, 8,
Frodoard,
Fulco, 173.
173.
Fronto, 28.
Donatns, 25, 35, 30, 101, 174. Dositheus, 101. Drogo, 177.
Fulda, 49, 03, 04, 126, 128, ISO, 106,
167, 168, 169, 170, 172.
S
Banbald, The Blder, 89. Eanbald, The Younger,
124.
38, 76, 78,
Fulgentius, 84.
O
St.
OaU,
166, 171, 172.
Baster, Calculation of, 82, 46, 82.
Gallic schools, 28, 30, 41.
Egbert, 31, 33, 34, 37, 65.
iyKVKktot
TTaiici'a, 9, 19.
" Bgyptian "
Geography, 33. Geometry, 5, 6,
Gerbert, 176.
7,
8 aqq.
teachings, 82.
EigU, 130. Einhard, 43, 168, 184 note. Elipandus of Toledo, 60.
Gerhoch, 129. St. Germain, 172, 173. Gisela, daughter of Charles,
Glossary, 164.
43, 44.
EUwangen,
169.
Gisela, sister of Charles, 43, 44, 90.
19.
Encycliut diaciplina,
Bntellus, 47, 83.
Gorz, 176.
Gotteschalk, 133.
Episcopal schools, 67. Eric of Auxerre, 172, 173, 176. Brigena, 132, 141, 142, 144, 166, 167.
Grammar,
5, 6, 7,
8 8qq.
Brmenric, 169,
Ethelred, 60.
171.
Gratuitous education, 55, 56, 68, 60. Greek in Alcuin's writings, 90.
Bthelbert (see .<£lbert).
Greek studies, 28, 29. Gregory the Great, 11,
20, 160. 90.
29, 34, 80,
Btymologies of Isidore,
Euboric, 32, 67. Euclid, 25.
Orimaldus, 171. Gundrada, 43, 44.
BulaUa, 44, 47. Butychius, 36.
Sxtemi,
171.
F
" Father of
the Vineyards,"
78.
Hadrian, Pope, 42, 6L HalbersUdt, 127, 108.
Hamburg,
Harmot,
170.
Felix of Ui^el, 60, 86.
Ferrieres, 124, 125, 165, 167, 170,
172.
**
171.
Hatto, 127, ISl.
Haymo,
100.
127, 168,
Vi.
Fiforea " of Onunmar,
Hiptat, 20.
202
Hilary, S4.
INDEX
Liberal Arts (see BeTen Liberal
Hildebold, 178.
ArU).
LQfer Homo, 6. Library at Fulda, 129, 130. Library at Tours, 67, 68, 1S9. Library at York, 34-36, 67. LU>ri CaroUni, 62. Libri Novem Ditciplitiarttin, Lindisfame, 62. Liudger, 38.
Lintgard, 42. 43, 88, 88.
Liutpert, 169.
HUdeman,
Hincmar,
170.
Hilduin, 170.
107.
Hirichau, 169.
Homer, 44. Homilary of Charlec,
64.
6, 7.
Huebald, 172, 173. 170. Haju,41.
Image-worship, 61, OS. Imperial schooU, 1, 9.
Inttitutet of Sacred Letteri, 2S.
Lombards,
42.
Lorraine, 173.
Lorscb, 127.
InstUutio Oratorio,
Ireland, 27.
9.
Lucan,
35, 36.
Lullns the Jew, 39.
77, 82, 121, 185.
Irene, 61.
TxUb learning,
iMiah,
67, 68.
Lunar epact, 154. Lupus Serratoa (see Serratna Lapus).
Isidore, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 36, 37, 68,
82, 92, 101, 104, 106, 150, 156, 157,
Lyons, 124.
U
MaehariuB, 44. Magenfrid, 44. Maginhard, 109.
164.
Jerome,
172.
34, 36, 4«, 84, 166, 166, 167,
Marcomanni,
the Deaf, 177.
156.
7, 17,
John
Martianus Capella,
St.
18-22, 25^
Jonathan, 80. Joseph, 38. Josephns, 142.
St. Julian of
28, 30, 37, 82, 142, 167, 174.
Martin of Tours,
63, 64, 87, 88,
174.
St.
Tours, 176.
Maur,
127.
Julias, 44.
Maums
(see
Rabanus Maoma).
Jnrispmdenee, 32. JnveacQS, 34, 140.
Mayence,
124, 125, 126, 131.
Medicine, 7, 8, 21. Medieval periods, Menalcas, 45.
Mercia, 59.
1, 2.
]
LactantiuB, 10, 36, 157.
Mercury and Philology,
Merovingians, 41, 70. Metz, 172, 175.
Mllo, 172, 173.
19.
Langnedoe,
136.
Leidrad, 54, 124. Leo, 34, 85, 86.
Lerins, 28, 20.
Monastic schools,
58, 67.
" LeTite," 34. Lewis the Plvu,
1«T.
Monte Casaino,
43,
86,
126.
166,
Mlinster, 38.
Moaic,
6, 6, 7,
8 $qq.
INDEX
Phoeaa, 36. Pindar, 44.
aoi
KathanMl.
44.
03.
Plato. 142, 143, 144, 147.
Vice, Conncil of, 61,
Platonic disciplines, 48.
Nicomachua, 25, 101. Northambrid, 21, 58, M, M, Notce Caiarii, 166. Notkcr, 101, in, 173.
Platonic philoeophcra, 14f.
66, T7.
Plautus, 28.
Play at school,
Poetry, 46.
76.
mioH, 57, 170. Odo of BeauTkia, 170. Odo of Cambray, 177. Odo of Clany, 174, 17«.
Ofia, 59, 60. T4, 76.
" Point," 154. Pompeiaa the grammarian, H^ |^ Pompeiua Trogna, 34.
Porphyry,
22.
Proeparamettta, 149.
Primary education,
68.
Priacian, 35, 36, 101, 16», 111;
VL
OBiM,88.
Orleans, 80, 86, 124. Oroiiua, 34.
ProbuB, S6. "Prodigal Son," S8,lUw Proaper, 36.
Ostentum,
Oaolf, 38.
154.
Prum, 172. Pttudodoetom, It.
Pythagoras, 146.
Otfriad 9t WaiiMntait, ia0» 171.
Palace School, 41 sqq., 166. " Paradigmatic " writing, 81.
Quadrivium,
22, 28,
J
QnintiUan, 8, », 10.
" Fkraphraatical "
writing.
SL
Babanna Haonu, lt6-164, 166, W,
160, 170.
•• «•
Paria, 86, 166, 173, 176, 176. Pari!, University of, 174, 177.
Pariah achoola, 66, 56, 67.
Puna, 39.
Parta of
Sdncational
writings,
Grammar,
100.
lai
Paachaaioa Ratpert, 160, 178.
St. Patrick, 28.
•99-
Baganhard,
64.
88.
Paolinna, 35, 140.
Batbert, 171.
PauUnoa of Aqnileia,
Paria, 39.
Ratgar, IM, UT. Ratpert (aee PaaehMtoa
lU^Wt).
Pepin, aoQ of Charlaa tbe GtmM,
43,106.
Batranmoa,
170.
Perfect numbers, 24, 143, 144.
Periods in Middle Ages, Peter of Cluny, 177.
Peter of Piaa, 39.
Petertberg, 181, 16C.
1, i.
Regino. 172. Reichenaa, 166, 168, ITL Rembert, 170. Remy of Auxerra, 172, ITS, IM,
176, 176, 177.
Philoaophy a Uberal ut, 6. ruioiogy.ia.
16, IT.
Retractationa, 16. Rbeima, 166, 178. 176, 176. Bhatorie, 6, 6, 7, 8 agg.
204
Bienlf, 4S. 54, 134.
INDEX
Stnrm, 126.
Sylvester II,
ITfll
Bigbod,
Bt.
U4. Biqnier, Ui.
86,
Bymeon,
38.
BlUcbl. 7. 16. Robert of Mets, ITI. BoMellinua, 177. Botrud, 43, 90. Bndolpb. 126, 180, lOB.
••Siu«iett]r,»71,10l.
T
Terence, 160.
Tertnllian, 10, 14, 16.
Theodore of Tarans, 29, 86. Theodulf 42, 43, 64, 66, 67,
,
68,
n,
79, 80, 81, 121, 124.
B
8aitU$ of the
18», 190.
Theology,
46.
Tbyrsis, 45.
Chunk at
Tork, tl,
Timcetu of Plato,
Tobias,
144.
Book
of, 86.
Balzbnrg, 68, 124.
Bftmnel, 127, 128 note, 129.
Toors,
63, 64, 66, 67, 68, 70, 71, T2,
74, 77, 78, 80, 82, 85, 86, 87, 88,
Sapieniia, 70.
Saracens, 41, 42, 81.
102, 114, 124, 126. 126, 127, 128,
130.
Saiura, 19. Satura Doctor, 26. Baxona, 41. BcboIaaticUm, 132, ITT. Schokuticut, S4, TOL Bebool at Tork, 76. ScoteUut, 82.
Scriptorlnm, 70, 72, TS.
Scriptorea, 134, 137, 188.
Treves, 85, 124. TritbemiuB, 149.
Trivium, 23, 26, 106. Tudesque, 103, 164, IM, liC Tnronie City, 67.
TntiIo,171.
Secondary education,
Sednlioa, 34, 140.
UniTtnal primary
adncatioiit
68.
Hk
SeligentUdt, 168.
Seneca,
8, 9, 10.
Sena, 124, 167.
Varro,
6, T. 8, It, IT, 19,
«. ttk n»
Servatus Lnpna, 130, 167, 168, 170,
172, 176.
144,146.
Vetolns, 44.
VictorinoB, 34.
Servina, 36.
Seven Liberal Art*, 4-87,
48, 97, 139, 146, 147.
•'
Vienne, 170.
82, 87,
BeTen Pillara " of X^adoni,
79,96.
80.
VUlage schools, 66, 66, " Vineyards," 78, 79.
VirgU,
8T, it.
24,
28, 36, 86, 46, 84, 86,
1T4
" Seven WaterpoU,"
Signlf, 88, 42, 86, 124.
Solomon,
44, 47.
Sopbiatical reasoning, lOt,
Wala,
43.
Borek, 80. State education,
§t«tlTli,
Walafrid Strabo, 180, 164, 168, 160^
U,
171, 176.
86|8A>
\KrBldramn, 38.
INDEX
Wario,
ITO.
206
WearmoQtb, 29. Werembert, 170, 171, ITflL Wido, 116. William of Champeanx, 177.
" Wine-cellara,"
79, 80.
Yarrow, 29. York, 31-38.
58, 59, SO,
M,
67,
M,
74, 76, 76, 87, 124, 186.
Z
Zabdi, 79, 80.
ZacbaJriaa,
WiUo, 38, 42, 68.
Pope, Uiu
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' '
ARISTOTLE.
of ancient pedagogy is Professor Davidson's subject, the course of education being traced up to Aristotle, an account of whose life and system forms, of course, the main portion of the book, and down from that great teacher, as well as philosopher, through the decline civilization. An appendix discusses The of ancient Seven Liberal Arts, and paves the way for the next work in chronological sequence, Professor on Alcuin. The close relations between Greek West's, education and Greek social and political life are kept constantly in view by Professor special and attractive feature of the Davidson. very work is the citation, chiefly in English translation, of passages from original sources expressing the spirit of the different theories described.
The whole
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to develop the story of educational institntloni in Europe from the beginning of the influence of Qiristianity on education to the origin of the Universities and the first beginnings of the modem careful analysis is made of the effects of Greek and movement. Roman thought on the educational theory and practice of the early Christian, and their great system of schools, and its results are studied with care and in detail. The personality of Alcuin enters largely into the story, because of his dominating influence in the movemenL
Professor
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"Die von Ihnen mir freundlichst zugeschickte Schrift des Herm Professor ich mit lebhaftem Interesse gelesen und bin ilberrascht davon in Word America eine so eingehende Beschaltigung mit unserer Vorzeit Kenntniss der Literature iiber diesen Gegenstand zu ausgebreitete eine und so finden. Es sind mir wohl Einzelbeiten begegnet ein denen ich etwas auszuAuffassung und Darstellung aber kaim ich nur als sehr die ganze setzenfand, wohl gelungen und zutreffend bezeichnen." Professor Wattenbach, Berlin. Alcuin seems to me to combine carefult I take pleasure in saying that cholarly investigation with popularity, and condensation with interest or M* till, in a truly admirable way. "— Proussor G. T. Laod, qf VaU.
West uber Alcuin habe
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THB GREAT EDUCATORS
ABELARD.
M. Compayre, the well-known French educationist, has prepared in this volume an account of the origin of the great European Universities that is at once the most scientific and the most interesting in the English
Naturally the University of Paris is the central figure in the language. and the details of its early organization and influence are fully account Its connection with the other great universities of the Middle given. Ages and with modern university movement is clearly pointed out. Abelard, whose system of teaching and disputation was one of the earliest signs of the rising universities, is the typical figure of the movement; and M. Compayre has given a sketch of his character and work, from an entirely new point of view, that is most instructive.
;
" 'Abelard' may fairly be called the founder of university education in Sarope. and we have in this volume a description of his work and a careful analysis of his character. As the founder of the great Paris University in the thirteenth century the importance of his work can hardly be overestimated. The chapter devoted to Abelard himself is an intensely interesting one, and the other chapters are of marked value, devoted as they are to the origin and early history of universities. . . . The volume is a notable educational work. Button Daily Travtltr.
"—
LOYOLA.
a critical and authoritative statement of the educational principles and method adopted in the Society of Jesus, of which the author is a distinguished member. The first part is a sketch, biographical and historical, of the dominant and directing personality of Ignatius, the Founder of the order, and his comrades, and of the establishment and
is
This work
early administrations of the Society. In the second an elaborate analysis of the system of studies is given, beginning with an account of Aquaviva and the Ratio Studiorum, and considering, under the general heading of "the formation of the master," courses of literature and philosophy, of divinity and allied sciences, repetition, disputation, and dictation; and nnder that of "formation of the scholar," symmetrj' of the courses pursued, the prelection, classic literatures, school management and control, <jxaminations and graduation, grades and courses.
" This volume on St. Ignatius of ' Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits,' by the Rev. Thomas Hughes, will probably be welcomed bv others besides those specially interested in the theories and methods of education. Written by a member of the Jesuit Society, it comes to us with author!^, and resents a complete iuid well - arranged survey of the work of educational S evelopment canted oat by Ignatius and his followers." —i^M<iim SaiunUty Xtvitvt.
FROEBSL.
Friedrich Froebel stands for the movement known both in Eturope and in this country as the New Education, more completely than any other single name. The kindergarten movement, and the whole development of modern methods of teaching, have been largely stimulated by, if not entirely based upon, his philosophical exposition of education. It is not believed that any other account of Froebel and his work is so complete and exhaustive, as the author has for many years been a student of Froebel's principles and methods not only in books, but also in actual Mr. Bowen is a frequent examiner of kinpractice in the kindergarten
—
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^ergartens, of the children in them, and of students who are trained to lit kindergarten teachers. ' No one, in England or America, is fitted to give a more sympathetic or lucid Mr. Bowen's book Interpretation oi Froebel than Mr. Courthope Bo wen. will be a most important addition to any library, and no student of Froebel eas afford to do witbooc it. ' ' Kate Douglas Wiggin, New York City.
'
...
HERBART.
In this book. President De Garmo has given, for the first time in the English language, a systematic analysis of the Herbartian theory of education, which is now so much studied and discussed in Great Britain and the United States, as well as in Germany. Not only does the volume contain an exposition of the theory as expounded by Herbart himself, but it traces in detail the development of that theory and the additions to it made by such distinguished names as Ziller, Story, Frick, Rein, and the American School of Herbartians. Especially valuable will be found Dr. De Garmo's careful and systematic exposition of the problems that centre around the concentration and correlation of studies. These problems are generally acknowledged to be the most pressing and important at present before the teachers of the country. Some one has said there can be no great need without the means of supplying such need, and no sooner did the fraternity realize its need of a knowledge of the essentials of Herbart than Dr. De Garmo's excellent work on Herbart and the Herbartians,' by Scribner's Sons of New York, appeared, a book which, costing but a dollar, gives all that the teacher really needs, and gives it with devout loyalty and sensible discrimination. It is the work of a believer, a devotee, an enthusiast, but it is the masterpiece of the writer who has not forgotten what he owes to his reputation as a scholar in his devotion to liia master." Journal of Education.
' '
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THE ARNOLDS.
book heretofore published concerning one or both of the Arnolds has accomplished the task performed in the present instance by Sir Joshua Fitch. A long-time colleague of Matthew Arnold in the British
Educational Department, the author leaving biography aside has, with nnusual skill, written a succinct and fascinating account of the important services rendered to the educational interests of Great Britain by the Master of Rugby and his famous son. The varied and successful efforts of the latter in behalf of a better secondary education during his long official career of thirty-five years as Inspector of Training Schools, no less than the notable effect produced at Rugby by the inspiring example of Thomas Arnold's high-minded character and enthusiastic scholarship, Whatever in the teaching of both seems likely are admirably presented. to prove of permanent value has been judiciously selected by the author from the mass of their writings, and incorporated in the present volume. The American educational public, which cannot fail to acknowledge a lasting debt of gratitude to the Arnolds, father and son, will certainly welcome this sympathetic exposition of their influence and opinions. " The book is opportune, for the Amoldian tradition, though widely ditfose' in America, is not well based on accurate knowledge and is pretty muchiA the air. Dr. Fitch seems the fittest person by reason of his spiritual sympathy with the father and his personal association with the son, to sketch in this brief way the two most typical modem English educators. And he has done his work
llffa
No
—
—
almost ideally well within his limitations of purpose. . . . The two anas in these oases as thecvwere. '—Educational Rtvina. New York.
'
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